natural selection…

[Magnum Man]

so, been trying to get my egg laying yellow acara female, a male, not sure if one of the juvinals in the tank will turn out to be mate… see many acaras for sale, I believe they different species, not just different colors of the same fish from different regions…

are these fish potentially from the same area?? ?
I assume they could breed in a tank if they decided to mate???

if these are not just regional colors ( blue, yellow, royal ) and they are from the same regions, what keeps them from interbreeding in the wild???

 

[Magnum Man]

best I can tell, they are each from different rivers in the same regions
Aequidens… the yellow being Aequidens metae, are list by AI as “true acaras”,
diadema ( royals ), are one of the supposedly 17 different species of Arquidens… of all of these are from the same general area, I would think the species would get all “muddied” up during rainy season flooding, and fish being displaced???

point of the question, is I assume my female wanting to mate, would be happy with any suitable Aequidens presented???

 

[Innesfan]

Not entirely sure of what you are asking. There are many species of 'acaras' which is a general term for a type of South American cichlid. There are many species across many genera, Aequidens, Andinoacara, Laetacara, Cichlasoma, Guianacara, Ivanacara, etc. Within each species there are populations that may show some relatively minor variation color-wise. But "Blue Acaras" (Andinoacara pulcher) and "Royal Acaras" (Aequidens diadema) are entirely different species from your "Yellow Acaras" (Aequidens metae) and are not color variants. (A fine example of how "common names" muddy the waters. But I digress.) While there are scattered reports of matings occurring between single specimens of different acara species when no potential mate of their own species is present, the eggs were in every case infertile and never developed. Does this answer your question?