What are everyone's thoughts on this pairing?

[Kerrie]

Hello,
What are every ones thoughts on the pairing of a stendker santarem female and a red spotted green male (wild type) ? Is it a match worth growing out the young for, or will I end up with peppered or muddy coloured young?
Thanks
Kerrie

[Kerrie]

Any ideas anyone? Has anyone breed a santarem to any thing before? What was the outcome of the cross? Thanks

[Merrilyn]

My question has to be Kerrie, why would you want to? Both are magnificent fish in their own right and I can't see that adding red spots to a santarem fish is going to improve it.

If your pair have already spawned, then by all means grow them out, you won't see any peppering in them, but they will never command the price of pure strains.

[Kerrie]

Hi Merrilyn,
I do not have another santarem to put her too, have scoured the forums, gumtree, AI ect to find a male for her, but none on the horizon. I have the choice of either the red spotted green (wild type), wild caught royal blue, refection D (colbolt), virgin red or a malaysian bred blue faced brown (blue faced red cover) males to pair her to, but she has chosen the rsg which is the biggest, best colour and shaped male in the tank. I didn't think I would get spotting as it is recessive?, but thought I might get a red-brown base like her with more striations from the rsg? Would this be the best possible match for her with what males I currently have available?

[Merrilyn]

Hi Kerrie, let her spawn with the mate she has chosen, the RSG and see what you get. Spawning is a learned experience and she's likely to have more success with a mate of her choice, than to introduce another male.

My choice would be the wild caught royal blue, but I've never been a big fan of cross breeding. It takes years, and a lot of tank-space to establish a new strain. Very few have the time or enthusiasm to do it, so it's safer to stick with the known strains, and let the Asian breeders do what they do best :)

If you raise the fry, I'm sure we'd all be very interested to see the result. Good luck.