Endlers keeping and hybridising

[Justikanz]

What are you guys' views on mixing strains of Endlers'?

Arguments for the mix could be:
1) Afterall, they are just different strains and not different species, like mixing Endlers' (Poecilia sp."Endlers") and guppies (Poecilia reticulata)?

2) They do that in the wild too.

[Fei Miao]

http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/cal...ger_endler.htm

Yeah, they already did it.

As long as there's money to it, there will be cross-breds and new strains, it happens in the aquarium trade... trouble is when these are release into the wild... that's another story.

But personally I prefer the endlers as they are, little beauties created by mother nature.

[Justikanz]

Personally, also dun think the hybrids look good...

But what about crossing strains? Is it also frowned upon? My friend has got the green and orange strains (and he claims also the pink strain) and is seriously contemplating placing them all in a tank to save space and to let them cross strains...

[stormhawk]

Kanz, its all a matter of personal preference. I would personally keep the strains pure because from info I've gathered, the new strains were found in separate areas of the lagoon where they live in. Although the strains may hybridise in nature, we should not rely on that to justify the mixing of known strains. Once someone does it, the value of the strain will drop. Unless however the crosses were done with proper planning. Then that's a different issue altogether.

Your friend can mix them if he wants because its his fish and its his choice. But should he decide to sell off the fry, he should notify the buyer that they are crosses. These "hybrids" will produce fry that show either parent's phenotype (colour/pattern/finnage) and some will probably show intermediate traits between the two parent strains. Some people who buy them may happen to be discerning hobbyists and if they find some oddball fry amongst the bunch, then they might be pretty unhappy.

Like Fei Miao has said, once money is involved, it becomes the driving factor behind the reason for people to cross them into fancy guppy lines like the Tiger "Endler" strain.

[Justikanz]

Will be placing them in a 1ft cube with cherry and red nose shrimps... Should I add a couple of darios? Afraid that the fry will end up as food for the darios...

[stormhawk]

Well I wouldn't add the Dario if I was you. They're best kept on their own and the fry will survive in more ways than one.. with extra plant cover of course.