Ps. saulosi and Ps. Coral Red

2169 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by cichlidaholic, Apr 23, 2008

xclub

Discussion Starter · Apr 23, 2008

I have a doubt, and I need opinion and suggestions for following issue/Q.

In one tank I have Ps. Saulosi and Ps. Coral red.
As many of you know the origins of Coral Red I will not repeat it.

My Q is:
Should I have these two species in one tank or not?

I have a nice group of 6 Coral Red's and a group of 10 saulosi already in the same tank.

No problems until now, but I could have one latter, maybe…
The Q's that goes through my mind are: what about crossbreeding, the results of this crossbreed, aggression between males…

I am a little bit concerned, I don't want to have any problems in this tank if I must I will do what's necessary…

Concerning crossbreed "product" the young ones should be a nice ones.

The thing that I am afraid of is that one male will/could claim all females (for example Saulosi male claim all coral red females or other way around) and that dominant male could kill others (in Coral Red group I have one dominant and one subdominant male, and in Saulosi group I have one dominant and 2 subdominant males)

In advance thank you all for your opinions/shared experience suggestions …or something else…

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cichlidaholic

· #2 · Apr 23, 2008

The potential for crossbreeding alone would deter me from keeping them in the same tank.

But, yes, you're right. One male from either group could be the one who spawns with all the females.

Kim

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xclub

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 23, 2008

Well I was not sure or better to say I am not sure that they will crossbreed but there is a possibility.

I don't want to end up with one male spawning with all females. I need a clear blood line so I probably will take Coral Red out from there, or saulosi…or coral red… :-?

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QHgal

· #4 · Apr 23, 2008

Since Coral Reds are not pure, but in fact a hybrid, I would pull them out.

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cichlidaholic

· #5 · Apr 23, 2008

Since the "coral reds" are hybrids to start with, and crosses which are made up of saulosi and red zebra, they are even more prone to crossbreed with other fish than your pure species are. The same risk would exist with red zebras!

One of the first cichlids I bought was a hybrid - likely a cross between a fuelleborni and zebra, but I purchased him as a fuelleborni. He was a very nice looking fish, so I tried to hang on to him, however, he wouldn't leave my zebra females alone, even though he looked more like a fuelleborni.

Kim

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thevein

· #6 · Apr 23, 2008

that just furthers my opinion about hybrid fish period, they are very unpredictable as far as aggression and spawning with random females.

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cichlidaholic

· #7 · Apr 23, 2008

I kept him for a year, just hated to get rid of him because he was one of my first.

The funny thing was that the zebra females (M. greshakei) seemed to "sense" the zebra in this male, and actually preferred him over the very ready and very willing greshakei male, even though they looked nothing alike. The hybrid could back my male greshakei into a corner every time, but nothing else in the tank would take the greshakei on.

There were fuelleborni females (OB) in the tank, and he paid little to no attention to them. :-?

I got tired of culling fry from this fish so I moved him to a tank by himself, but eventually decided I didn't want to waste the tank space on a fish that I couldn't house with anything else.

Kim

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