can cichlids be inbred

[SLIKCDOGG]

i am asking this ? because i plan on gettings some baby festaes and was wondering should i get baies from different parents and let them pair up on their own
or should i get all my babies from one place if brother and sister were to pair up wouldn't this be inbreeding and couldn't this create a bad batch of fish

[Neil N]

in short yes, cichlids can imbreed, a brother and sister will mate, and it's a pretty good bet that if a store has bought a batch of a particular fish that they will be siblings.

If you really want to breed them, (and sometimes you just cant stop them), it's really better to get your juveniles from 2/3 different sources. In reality bother/sister may still pair up but you greatly increase your chances of refreshing the gene pool.

[Rex Karr]

Neil's right. Its best to buy your fish from as many different places as possible to prevent inbreeding. But another thing to think about, is that most Americans have many different natural location variantes. There are Festae "Blue", Festae "Black" and many others. And it can sometimes be a little difficult to see the differences. So its quite possible to actual cross breed 2 different variantes and actually have a hybird festae of sorts. Not a 2 species hybrid, but a same species hybrid. Its a bit confusing, and maybe hybrid isn't the correct term, but you get the idea. I wouldn't really be worried about this in most cases though.

Rex

[SLIKCDOGG]

i thought hybrid was the breeding of 2 different similiar species to creat 1 new product from the 2 different

[Rex Karr]

[quote:445aa3493b="SLIKCDOGG"]i thought hybrid was the breeding of 2 different similiar species to creat 1 new product from the 2 different[/quote:445aa3493b]


Like I said, "Hybrid" may not be the correct term. But it might be. I think I remember reading that if to different location variantes cross, it is also a hybrid. I mean, look at these pics.

Neetroplus panamensis

http://www.home.zonnet.nl/cichliden.org/Vissen/Neetroplus-Panamensis/images/imagepages/image2.htm


Neetroplus panamenis "Red"

http://www.home.zonnet.nl/cichliden.org/Vissen/Neetroplus-PanamensisRed/images/imagepages/image3.htm


As you can see the differences are great. Yet the fish are of the same species. So if someone crossed these 2, it would make a "Panamensis Hybrid" in my eyes.