Mbuna Cross Breeding? Good Bad Or Ugly?

[odannyboy]

if mbuna species cross breed with simular species or even for that matter different species,what should you do?i hope my future fish will breed and dont really want to discorage it but.... i want to have good strong pure bred fry.how can this be controlled/helped without me setting up a whole designated fish house!!!
another issue if i buy a load of fry of a species from joe bloggs.grow them on and select the ones i like.they then breed but im efectivly breeding brothers and sisters? how serious is this?
your thoughts pls!!!

 

[adambrum]

This will get a lot of debate !

mbuna will cross breed and the offspring imo should be put straight back in the tank (feed the catfish)

If you are going to breed intensionaly then start with either wild caught or f1(dont belive everyone who says there fry are f1) i belive they can be inbred upto 6 generations and keep there purity.

One last thing try and breed less common species there easier to sell.

 

[odannyboy]

how predatory are most mbuna i had thought i could use that as a natural selection screen type thing,but if they all/none get eaten then that misses the point?not my ideal thing anyway
something i dont understand is that humans never interbreed ( well not me anyway!!! he he!)
so why is it sort of ok with fish?
good point about the species thougt everyone and there mother has yellow labs for sale!

 

[adambrum]

how predatory are most mbuna i had thought i could use that as a natural selection screen type thing,but if they all/none get eaten then that misses the point?not my ideal thing anyway
something i dont understand is that humans never interbreed ( well not me anyway!!! he he!)
so why is it sort of ok with fish?
good point about the species thougt everyone and there mother has yellow labs for sale!

there not really predatory but put fry in the tank and they wont last 2 miniutes

if you keep 1m-3f it can vastly reduce chances of interbreeding but if a female is ready and no male of the same species is available or the alfa male of the tank wants her then she gets it.

be warned breeding mbuna is easy but once they start you can expect fry every 5-6 weeks, at the moment i have 4 holding fry and about 300 fry im raising, im having to let them spit in the tank now as i have to many