Please help ive got babies

[Maddsy]

Right ive got these fish in a small tank can anyone tell me what they are...

Sorry about the quality of the pics

Last night i discovered between them they had 11 "mini fish"

I need help and advice about what i should do with the babies etc

Thanks

Maddsy

 

[rvm]

They are african cichlids of some type, if you ask in the africa cichlid section you will probably get better answers there!

 

[Phantom Thief]

The second and third pics are that of an Electric Yellow.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34733

The first one i don't know.

P.T.

 

[Maddsy]

BUMP

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

no need for the bump!!!
the first fish may be a lombardoi, or a zebra of some species.
the other 2 are as P.T. correctly said labidochromis caureleus.

 

[Maddsy]

The bottom 2 are the same fish lol

what shall i do with the babies

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

if those are the only two fish in the tank, then you should really euthanise the babies as they will be hybrids.
if they aren't then try to raise them and sell them to your lfs or friends.

 

[Maddsy]

seems a bit harsh lol

sorry for being thick but why should i / would i need to euthanise them?

Maddsy

 

[sylvia]

they are hybrids - a mixture of two different species. Letting these hybrid fish get to other people pollutes the gene pool and means that the original species can be completely wiped out. It;s the same things as what's been happening to wolves/coyotes through cross-breeding with each other as well as domestic dogs. Worst still, if the hybrids somehow got back into the wild (though unlikely with captive tropical fish), the new hybrids could completely result in a wipe-out of the natural parent species and result in a serious disruption of the food chain and environment that could significantly affect other species as well. It is never a good idea to mix species if you cannot control the results.

 

[ladynaoko]

funnily enough I was writing an essay about hybrids earlier

The problem with hybridisation is that it ruins the genetic stock (if that makes sense). Say, you had a lion and you bred it with a tiger you'd get a Liger (or if the male was a tiger, a Tigon), which is far less than diserable as it has no benefit to either species.

Now, I bet you're thinking that this has nothing at all to do with fish!! Well, lets take a look at a few points on Ligers & Tigons and compare them with fish.

#1:
Both have extremely different growth rates - ligers tend to be "giant" cats, reaching up to 12ft high when stood on the back paws whilst tigons tend to be dwarfed.

How does #1 affect fish?
as you can see with the ligers and the tigons, hybrid species in general can vastly differ in size. So hybrid fish may turn out to be three times the size of the parents!

#2:
Ligers have been spotted to have moments of conflict between the personalities of the two mixed species, having mini-mood swings so to speak (eg: Tigers are very keen swimmers and love water - whilst lions are the complete opposite. Most ligers tend to argue with the two species they're bred from and have difficulty overcoming obstacles that one species is adept at and the other isn't).

How does #2 affect fish?
All species of fish have different personalities and breeding two different species together can cause a personality "clash" in the offspring, making its behaviour difficult to predict and may cause it to be more difficult to care for.

#3:
To date all male ligers and tigons have been proven to be infertile which would prevent them from spreading their genes, females however are not and can be bred with both lions and tigers to create li-ligers, li-tigons, ti-ligers and ti-tigons.

How does #3 affect fish?
Wether male hybridised fish are infertile I do not know but as the females probably would be they could further ruin the genetic stock.


Thats enough of me going on about ligers and tigons

another point that you may want to think of in hybridised fish is that theres not a lot of call for them - unless you got another tank you may have a pretty hard job giving them away once they're old enough.

For the record, if I've made any really wrong points here feel free to correct me

 

[Maddsy]

Ok so im confused now lol not really.

So i just need to get this straight, what fish is the stripy one and what fish is the yellow one.

Maddsy

 

[Phantom Thief]

The yellow one is the Electric Yellow (flash of the obvious?)

The blue one i'm not so sure.

P.T.