Mutant Babies?

[Mbuniac]

A month or so ago my female Kenyii had babies which I removed from the tank. All of the other fish in the tank were acting really weird! I wondered at the time if it were pheremones. I won't go into all the actions, but one of them was that my Male Yellow Lab acted like he was trying to mate with my female Red Zebra. I call her that mutant midget, but that's another story. Anyway, everything seemed to get back to normal except for the fact that the Yellow Lab would repeat his actions periodically. Wednesday evening when I was leaving for work I looked at the Red Zebra and she looked like she was holding eggs! I was runninig late and couldn't investigate any closer. I called my wife that night when she got home and asked her to take a look. She said that the Red Zebra was picking up gravel and spitting it out so she couldn't be holding. I looked at her the next day and her mouth was empty.
I didn't think any more about it except to think it was foolish for me to think that a Yellow Lab and a Red Zebra (especially this one) would mate. Tonight I was sitting on the floor in front of the tank and noticed that she had dug a hole under a piece of slate, when all of a sudden a little orange baby swam out and immediately back in! To say the least I was stunned:jaw:!!! Tomorrow is cleaning day and I'll decide then whether to remove them or leave them in to see if they survive on their own cause I would never sell them to the IFS. This may be old stuff to some of you, but I never thought it could happen. Guess I know otherwise now!
Sam

[jonah]

Just pull out all of the rocks for an hour or so while you clean. That'll take care of the fry. I used to feel bad about letting the babies get eaten, but that was when there was only a couple of them. Last time I pulled the rocks out I had a couple of dozen hybrids in the tank, some of them nearly 2" long. They were all eaten within an hour. It helps if you don't feed the tank for a while before you pull the rocks out too.

[Mbuniac]

Way to go Jonah! Now my wife is mad at me. I blamed it on you. You didn't think I was gonna take the fall for turning them into snacks did ya?:wink:

[matt1066]

Why not grow them out to see what you get? Might be interesting.

If you have the room. The fry will most likely be sterile, which is great. I would jsut be curious to see what oyu get, even though I hate hybrids.

Matt

[SGypsyMermaid]

hybrids from the lake cichlids usually are not sterile, that's why everyone has such fits about them...they propagate and are sometimes passed off as new species.

[matt1066]

Hi SGM,

Thanks for the info, did not know that. I just assumed that the prodgeny of such an unlikely pairing as mentioned would be sterile:confused:

Regards,

Matt

[SGypsyMermaid]

one of these days, i will take a picture of my n. venustus X ps. red-top zebra hybrid. he's about 4 or 5 yrs. old and was a big surprise to me, as well. then there were the rusty X lab hybrids, and the johanni X kennyi babies...

[Mbuniac]

Hey Gypsy!
I've got this new species of Lake Malawi cichlid just off the boat I thought you might be interested. They're called "Electric Yellow Zebras"! I'll sell 'em cheap If they don't get eaten. So far they are hanging in there.
Haps/Mbuna crosses? What will they think of next?:D
Sam

[SGypsyMermaid]

no thanks!! i've got enough trouble with my own hybrids.:D :razz: