aggassizii & cacatuides cross breeding?

[boydvd]

hi guys

will these fish cross breed and hybridise if i keep them in the same 4 foot tank?

thanks

[gingerbeer01]

Two possible answers.

First Answer - would doubt that they would hybridise. With Apistos they are divided into groups called complexes. Fish from a complex are more closely related. For example fish in the same complex as cacatoides are jurensis, and nijsenni (nijsenni are in a different sub-complex). The complex has that big beefy bottom jaw strength.

Second Answer - I probably wouldn't do it myself as a matter of choice. My reason is twofold. Firstly the problem with all apisots is the females are yellow. Hence they can be hard to tell apart. I like to keep apistos together that I can obviously tell the females apart. If you follow this rule you will almost never have any hybrid problems to worry about.

HTH

[boydvd]

thanks giner... in that case i might keep my panduro with either my agassizii or my cacatuidoes as the females look markedly different.

[Robdog]

As Giner said, very unlikely to get any hybrids from different complex fish. Same complex, definitely raises the chances.

To quote the all knowledgable David Soares,
"In the A. agassizii complex species include A. bitaeniata and A. elizabethae. In the A. cacatuoides complex, there is A. juruensis and A. luelingi. If you mix fish within the same complex in a community tank, you could get some fireworks or some hybridization (to be avoided at all costs)."

[Robdog]

I'd keep the panduro with the aggies instead of the cacs. Panduro are similar to nijsseni which are a sub-complex of the cacatuoides and whilst you'll be able to tell the female panduro from the caca female, you won't get to see the female panduro tear the aggies fin from fin. :twisted:

[boydvd]

hi robdog,

thanks for the advice... so are you saying the panduro are likely to attack the cacas but will live more peacefully with the agassizi?

i dunno if i like the sound of fish being dismembered :(

[Robdog]

Yeah I guess that was easily misunderstood.
I was trying to say that cacs and panduro are from similar complexes so there is technically the chance for hybrid breeding. I'd say the chances are 1 in a million but I guess it could happen. :?
Aggies and panduro are totally different complexes, as you can tell from their body shapes, aggies quite slender and panduro quite stocky in comparison, so the chance of them cross breeding is even more remote. And from my experience, the panduro are great little brawlers and I reckon they'd beat seven shades through the aggies if they decided to breed.

Having said that, if you have them in a 4ftr then you'll probably get away with it. :wink:

[boydvd]

thanks for the clarification rob... well i just fished out 2 male agassizi from the four foot and left an Agassizii pair in the 4 footer. the female is turning yellow and dancing for the male.. fingers crossed.

funny i have a healthy panduro pair in a 2 footer... they share it with tetras, guppies, platies, 2 agggi males, 5 baby cacs. they all seem to do ok. the panduro chase them a bit but don't do any damage. even during spawning. maybe just got a nice pair in there. though wondering if they busy tank is stopping the eggs from hatchin (female eating them because she is stressed out from the commotion?)

[kristina]

That is way too much for a 2ft boydvd! I would be concerned about putting 2 male aggies in that by themselves (if it were my tank) let alone with a panduro pair and cac juvies! Your asking for trouble. I'm not saying it can't be done but I wouldn't be surprised if you ran into trouble. Look at getting more tanks...

[boydvd]

Hi K

yes it does look a bit crowded. i am looking at removing all the tetras for my 4 footer. and looking to offload the platies and most of my guppies. hopefully to the LFS. i would share the aggies and cacas in to the other two footer but the male in there is very aggressive. yes i do need more tanks!

[kristina]

I would personally be looking at relocating some of the apistos rather than the tetras guppies etc as those will give the apistos something to take their focus off the other apistos in the tanks that they are sharing a small territory with... If you know what I mean. If you have adequate filtration and hiding places I'm not so concerned with the number of fish you have in there as opposed to the number of different territorial apistos you have in there.

[boydvd]

those tetras and platies are greedy little buggers that eat all the food before it gets to the bottom so i want to offload them if i can...

as for the agasizi and cacas some are slightly deformed and so i might see if i can sell them on consignment at a lfs :) i might have to buy a deformed tank and keep those fish in there so they don't breed accidently. would hate to have to cull all my fry if this happened.

yeah 3 species i sbecomeing too much... i'm catching up with Hssles on Monday night so will get his advice on this. maybe this will be my last ditch effort with panduro and if i they don't breed for me, i will stick with the easier cacas and agassizi critters :)