Lake Tanganyika Species • Juli Neo Hybrids

[Augustus67]

I have a pair of J. Transcriptus in my Tang Community tank and recently, the female Juli bred with a lone male N. Brichardi, not once but 3 times. Has anyone ever heard of this before?

[Fogelhund]

I have a pair of J. Transcriptus in my Tang Community tank and recently, the female Juli bred with a lone male N. Brichardi, not once but 3 times. Has anyone ever heard of this before?

Yes. These fish can hybridize for sure, and there has been all kinds of crazy mixes over the years.

[sir_keith]

It happens. Unfortunately.

[Augustus67]

I'm assuming that being hybridized across genera will result in sterility so I guess there is no danger in keeping a few for visual interest. I can't cull so whatever the Calvus don't get are new additions.

[DJRansome]

They will not be sterile. I would separate the hybrids and the fish that created the hybrids or the problem will continue. Why not rehome the brichardi?

If the tank is large enough you could add a group of 5 Synodontis multipunctatus to perform fry patrol.

[sir_keith]

...They will not be sterile...

You can't make a blanket statement like that, for reasons outlined below.

...I'm assuming that being hybridized across genera will result in sterility...

Not necessarily; it depends largely on how closely the parental fishes are related. If their karyotypes are very different, heteroploidy in the progeny will likely result in hybrid sterility. However, if the parental karyotypes are similar (i. e. meiotically stable), the hybrids may be fertile. There is no way to know in advance, and just because we assign species to different genera does not mean that they cannot produce fertile hybrid progeny. That's the root source of the hybrid problem in Rift Lake cichlids.

[DJRansome]

Thank you for the additional information.

[sir_keith]

Thank you for the additional information.

Sure. This hybrid stuff in African cichlids is complicated business.

[Augustus67]

Thanks for the info everyone. I am going to rehome the Brichardi to prevent this from occurring again.

[Fogelhund]

...They will not be sterile...

You can't make a blanket statement like that, for reasons outlined below.

...I'm assuming that being hybridized across genera will result in sterility...

Not necessarily; it depends largely on how closely the parental fishes are related. If their karyotypes are very different, heteroploidy in the progeny will likely result in hybrid sterility. However, if the parental karyotypes are similar (i. e. meiotically stable), the hybrids may be fertile. There is no way to know in advance, and just because we assign species to different genera does not mean that they cannot produce fertile hybrid progeny. That's the root source of the hybrid problem in Rift Lake cichlids.

From experience, they won't be sterile. Blanket statements cannot be made, but when you've seen... you've seen.

The biggest shocker I've seen, was a fertile Tropheus x M. auratus hybrid.