Have a 9-10 inch male jag and a amphilophus labiatus female about 8 inches can they breed together not that I want them too but he follows her around the tank all day and I’ve seen him shake his head at her kind of like showing off no aggression or attacking etc I had gotten a male for her but he’s only about 4 inches
Can a jag and red devil breed together?
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Yes they can. That's the thing with central American cichlids, they are so closely related that they can all breed with each other. Unlike South Americans, that can only breed with thier own kind.
Wow that’s crazy didn’t know that about centrals. Well hopefully they don’t have fry
I am not sure but that seems too much of a generalisation, I know many Central American species will hybridise, but all of them? Would an Amatitlania breed with a Petenia for example? And as for South. American cichlids I know blue acaras and green terrors can hybridise. I also had a blue acara (Andinoacara latifrons I think), that spawned repeatedly with a Cichlasoma amazonarum. They turned out to be both females so I don’t know if this breeding would have been viable with a true pair., but some acara types are similar enough that I would not discount hybridisation between them in an aquarium situation. Also the various Mesonauta species are apparently closely related , as are Heros species..Some people say that Pterophyllum altum can hybridise with scalare, but I don’t know if this is true.
However, I do agree that the jaguar and Red Devil could breed together and produce viable hybrid offspring.
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Yes there are some south American cichlids that can breed with centrals such as the Mesoheros Festae. And yes blue Acara and Green terror can breed as they are both Andinoacara, closely enough related to have viable offspring. But you won't see things such as Oscar x Midas or Sevrum x Red Devils or even South American crossins such as Oscar x Sevrum or Discus x Angel fish. Over the millions of years of evolution they have drifted to far apart to make viable offspring.
If they could you would see it all over YouTube just like the thousands of central crossings you see.
If they could you would see it all over YouTube just like the thousands of central crossings you see.
Yes of course the genera you mention are not closely related, and it’s true that South American species belonging to different genera will not generally interbreed (though my Andinoacara and Cichlasoma tried to), whereas Central Americans will (all of them though?), at the species level though I would be surprised if, for example, the South American Cichlasoma species would not crossbreed, or the various Mesonauta for example. In aquaria, not in nature. Anyway, what you said as a broad generalisation is of course correct, but there are some exceptions.
That’s very interesting—I had wondered about the festae and motaguense particularly, since they share similar colors and strong sexual dimorphism.
Although the festae seems taller bodied. Maybe.
I'm still confused how a Festae was called a amp being from South America and then changed to Mesohero but can still breed with CA fish
It's because taxonomists and other experts are always working hard to keep us laymen confused and awestruck by their wisdom.
When an expert...either certified or merely self-proclaimed...tells you that "We once believed ABC, but today we believe XYZ..." you can usually listen to him and expect some level of impartiality and accuracy.
But then there are those guys who proclaim "We used to think this, but today we know that..."
Anybody who insists that he is the ultimate authority...he doesn't merely think something, or believe something, but rather he knows it to be incontrovertible fact...makes my BS detector begin to buzz.
Yes, like John implied , the taxonomists change things for their own reasons. They want to publish, and one way to do that is to lump species together or split them up.
Lately they are doing a lot of lumping in birds.
One definition of species is a population that doesn’t normally interbreed with other similar populations in natural conditions. That definition seems less popular recently, and DNA differences are preferred. But there is no obvious cutoff point for how much genetic difference is needed to qualify as a species. So it is still arbitrary.
A semi-solid practical definition is organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring (are the same species). Tigers and lions can…
Still arbitrary.
Lately they are doing a lot of lumping in birds.
One definition of species is a population that doesn’t normally interbreed with other similar populations in natural conditions. That definition seems less popular recently, and DNA differences are preferred. But there is no obvious cutoff point for how much genetic difference is needed to qualify as a species. So it is still arbitrary.
A semi-solid practical definition is organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring (are the same species). Tigers and lions can…
Still arbitrary.
