Accidental Hybrid in my aquarium...

[~RuSh~]

So several years ago now, I ended up buying two Parrots for my wife. I didn't really like them much, but since I had stocked our apartment full of fish tanks I figured she could choose a few fish too. After a years time, they had grown too large and I ended up selling them. But we liked them. They were both active, full of personality (much like an oscar) and they were not overly aggressive.

So after having free'd up some space I bought another parrot for her early this year. I had originally thought that it was a male, but a few weeks ago she laid eggs all over a rock in the 75g tank. I didn't see a problem with it except that she became extremely aggressive and was really harassing my Ornate bichir - not happening- . So I moved her over to my 125g where the cichlids are larger and more rough and tumble. It took less than a week for the parrot to pair up with the largest male convict in the tank and last night they laid eggs.

I know that female parrots can lay viable eggs, and I'm fairly certain that convicts and parrots can cross... so we'll see what I end up with. I'm not overly thrilled about the aggression right now (and I'll probably sell her after this batch), but there is enough space for everyone at the moment. Once the fry are free swimming I'll move them into a separate tank.

Anyone ever seen anything like this? T?

[Herefishyfishyfishy]

I haven't seen it personally but I have read of it happening. Would love to see if you can get a clear pic.

[~RuSh~]

No good pics. I took a crappy video from my phone but I haven't uploaded it yet.

Today there are some eggs being overcome by fungus, but it is only a very few, maybe 2-3%. Almost all are fertilized and still looking good. We'll have to see what happens. Should be wriggling by this weekend.

[T]

I have bred a BP with a short body pink convict and have known people who have bred theirs with regular striped convicts. The results being very similar. Most of the resulting fish took on the basic markings and body shape of the convict with one of mine getting some faint orange markings and one of my friends (forum friend) becoming solid orange. A few turned out kinda stunted and short bodied, none of these lasted very long.

I'll see if I can dig out some old pictures but the search seems to be broken.

[T]

I managed to dig out my old webshots album with day old fry to about 1.5" long

http://pets.webshots.com/album/29920575uFttSsNaVH

This is the mating. What actually happened was the male ballon convict nipped in and fertilised the eggs while the parrots were trying to breed. I wonder had I sectioned the parrots off would the male have cared for the convicts offspring...would all three of them maybe have tried? I removed the rock with the eggs though since they were in the main tank with hungry tankmates.

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/10296805 ... mQpcqlzXoA

The father (not a great pic as it was being treated for finrot/fungus in a hospital tank. At that point it had paired up with the female convict and they had produced several broods of full sized regular and pink convicts.

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/10280564 ... PzpQKRYaBh

If you are looking through my albums you will see me refer to the balloon convict as a "Jellybean parrot", this is wrong as they are all convict. Pink convict + BP cannont produce a fish with recessive pink convict gene, the parrot would also have to carry it somehow.

Here is one of their offspring at about 6"

[Kmuda]

[~RuSh~]

Awesome T, thanks for the reply. I really like the look of the one offspring that has the faint orange color. Looks to have a bit of a parrot mouth as well, but not as exaggerated. I'm not going to remove the rock because I don't have an empty tank. If the fry start wriggling, then I'll move them into a tank and do a switch-eroo or something, but if they don't make it, then so be it.

Cool stuff though. I forgot how fun watching breeding fish is.


Kmuda, if any of the fry survive, I'll probably keep one - the best looking - and I'll call him Frank.

[~RuSh~]

They hatched, and are free swimming.

I'm proud to announce that the only things I've bred besides convicts, have been convict hybrids.


I came home sunday night after a weekend back 'home' and all of the eggs were missing. I couldn't see any wrigglers either. I quietly assumed that they were eaten. I knew they were viable because almost all of the eggs laid were fertilized. I held out though knowing that sometimes the wrigglers are hard to see. Low and behold, tonight they've learned to swim.

[~RuSh~]

Video updates. First video was taken a week ago today, and the second was taken tonight.

[~RuSh~]

They are really starting to move about now.

[Echo]

how exciting! how do you go about WCs during all this?

[~RuSh~]

I don't know about water changes. I haven't done one since last Wednesday. I'm starting to get a little worried. I don't want to harm the fry with temperature swing, but the nitrates have to be getting up there by now. I think I'll do one tonight and just keep my fingers crossed.

[CuE]

this is soo cool!

what is the white stuff under the sand for?

[~RuSh~]

The 'white stuff' is egg crate. It's just extra support for the rocks. It eliminates any pressure points on the bottom of the tank to prevent cracks.

[Echo]

what about a few smaller WCs?

[~RuSh~]

If they had hatched in a smaller tank, then yes, I'd probably do smaller more frequent w/c's. But they are in the 125 with a lot of other fish, and as much as I want the fry to survive, I care about the 'main' fish more.

I recall having convict fry and doing water changes normally, so these guys should be fine as well.

[~RuSh~]

So as I was doing a water change yesterday, I noticed the male convict... wandering for lack of a better term. Some of the fry were getting picked off, and the female parrot was really stressing. I decided to move them out. I siphoned almost all of them and I have them in the 10g. The 10g had cherry shrimp and a betta in it. I fed the cherry shrimp to my Green terror tank (which they loved) and I have the betta in a temporary tub until I decide what to do with him.

The fry in the 10g seem to be doing well. It's moderately planted filtered by a powerhead/sponge combo already and I fed them last night. There are roughly 100-150 I'd guess in there, and there are actually some still in the 125g that I missed. Looks like about 20-30 or so. So a significant number of fry did get picked off in the 125g and I'd guess the same fate for the remaining handful.

I'll feed and monitor the large group myself and hopefully raised a few to get a good idea what they will look like. As these are hybrid fish, NONE will leave my tanks. They will either be culled, or kept.

I'll do my best to keep you all updated with pictures of growth as we go along.

[Echo]

awww daddy ~rush~ can't wait to see what happens.

[~RuSh~]

So in the past few days, the fry have really grown. They are still way too small to photograph or catch on video, but i can tell that they have put on some good size. That is encouraging. Especially since I've had them since they were free swimming. I've noticed a lot of die off as well. I expected many would not make it just out of the complications from being hybrid spawn. I've noticed some have bent spines. Most of those fry will not survive. They do not ambulate well and I expect will perish. It appears as though most of the healthy fry are taking on a dark coloration, but it may be too early to tell their actual color.

I'll get pics as soon as they are big enough for me to snap.

[Kmuda]

Maybe they'll look something like this....



Frankenfish.

[Ravyn_Smoke]

Maybe they'll look something like this....



Frankenfish.

He's a cutie.

[sprout]

Maybe they'll look something like this....



Frankenfish.

So where can I get one of those? I have some space. I have a spare 5g I could set up in a hurry.

[Kmuda]

I think I've hijacked Rush's thread enough with my Frankenfish nonsense. Sorry Rush. Looking forward to pics of the real things.........




I just hope there are no electrodes sticking out from the gill plates.

[T]

Nice one dood, you have a long way to go before you take my title of "Unnatural Selector" though.

You've got me in the hybrid creating mood though

[~RuSh~]

These little guys are still kicking. From what I can tell, most are going to look like dirty little convicts. Most have a dark coloration. They are starting to lose their transparency, and are probably 1/4 inch long or so. The tank I have them in has black substrate and since they are darkish in color, its really hard to get pictures of them. I'll do my best though and get pics up when I can.