Cross breeding

[crackatinny]

After an interesting answer to a question (see link to the thread)

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This opens up a whole new subject, what other fish have been crossed to get different affects.

I am a sucker for the ballon molly, and believe this species came about by interbreeding?

This subject may be of interest to a lot of people.

In saying that platy's and swordtail may crossbreed, will other livebearers do the same, Molly?, Guppy?

Or for that matter, different Chilchards? etc

[kimmers318]

Interesting topic....looking forward to seeing what comes about! I had always thought that "regular" platy's and swordtails were very similar, even to the point of possibly one being a variant of the other. I guess I wasn't too far off! I am not sure if mollies can breed with guppies, but I imagine they might be able to crossbreed with platies since they are similar. Looking forward to hearing if anyone has any experience with this.

[William]

Many fish can cross breed and even more fich species can be artificial cross bred. platys and mollies can as you suggest cross breed with fertile fry as a result, so can a wide number of cichlids which for an example is why you shouldn't keep convicts and dempsey together. you can however not cross bred al cichlids and a Malawi cichlid will as an example not breed with a south american cichlid.

the number of fish that can be cross bred are to high to list but simple put it's quit common for closely related species to be able to interbreed.

[crackatinny]

Can electric yellow and electric blue cichlids cross breed?

[Fishguy2727]

What species of electric blue? I can think of 4 different fish that could be called an electric blue cichlid.

[Abbeys_Mom]

The Nics I had could have fertile offspring with Cons. I had decided that if I could not find a female for my male Nic, that I was going to get a female Con for him.

Also, I know info on the web says it's not possible, but I swear I had Endler's that breed with Fancy Guppies. I had several females produce patterned males.

[matt_74]

I had a molly crossbreed with a guppy, however most of the fry were deformed. One thing I have read, is that crossbred fish are usually sterile, although I am very curious why this is, and if it is a physical abnormality that causes them to lack the ability to reproduce, or is it that no sperm and eggs are produced in their bodies. If anyone could tell me it would be a help, as artificial insemination may be an option if they both internally produce the eggs and sperm.

[Fishguy2727]

Usually it will be because the gene pools going into the hybrids are so mismatched that there is barely enough correct info on the genes to make an animal in the first place, let alone get all the hardware working right and come up with another set of genes to pass on to another generation.

[stubbytheplecostomus]

crossbreeding is not something looked well upon by a lot of aquariumnists, most of the time they result in deformed and sterile fry with they few that aren't deformed often end up having problems further down the line with their health. although many species are closely related and can be crossbreed, there is generally a few hundred-thousands-millions of years difference between them, every fish has its own characteristics that make them a different species, so those differences don't always work out well (including color morphs- trichogaster trichopterus (two spot, blue, opaline, gold gourami) for example comes in 4 color varieties, they are all the same species and can easily be breed together, however even when they are the same species mixing an Opaline with a gold yields colorless platinum/silver offspring) this is the same reason why many killifish keepers keep track of the specific population and year of killifish they have, the same species of killie can have many differences even when they are gathered 1/2 mile apart or a year or two later.
Blood parrots chiclids are a good example of crossbreeding two different chiclid species, the bloodparrot is generally sterile, has trouble swimming, has trouble opening and closing its jaw, along with a host of problems that we may not even know about. its best not to crossbreed species, if you are an avid breeder you should try to enhance the natural genetics not destroy them.