chopper Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 I have a question, can bully species hybridise? ( I don't mean populations of river Commons whereby some fish have Marine larval stages and some have freshwater which can cross, I mean actual species)! I guess this question is really for Stella or other people who know a lot about bullies. Im assuming they can but do they do so in the wild ( has any evidence been substantiated)or has it been recorded in captivity for that matter. I am no way going to attempt this if anybody is wondering! I assume Crans and Upland could and maybe Common. And also Common and Giant? But I am only guessing. I surmise some of the species don't in wild due to the specific environs they inhabit eg swift rapids, geographic isolation but is it possible in captivity? I know certain other sleepers do both in captivity and in the wild eg members of the Dormitator genus, but has it been recorded ever in nz Eleotridae. Also i have another question . I was cleaning out my bully tanks a while back and placed a common in with an upland in the same bucket ( my uplands and commons live in separate tanks). They started circling each other flaring up their fins and gills and opening their mouths then had a full on rumble and proceeded to bash the hell out of each other until separated. The Upland was a male and the Common a female , I know this as I have bred from them ( not hybridization) and the Common female was smaller but dominated the Upland male. Has any one seen this happen before? It wasn't a brief skirmish it was full on! They weren't really protecting an established territory as it was in a bucket and neither was breeding so wasn't super territorial. I found it interesting that the smaller fish won and thought whether or not do Commons surplant Upland from their territories in the wild? For surely if they fill the same ecological niche a more aggressive species will annex a weeker one given time. Yet they are both recorded living in same areas in wild. I suppose the weeker fish can always swim off in the wild though? Any thoughts on this and the above questions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Interesting questions here... judging by the reaction the common and upland had in the bucket, I'd suggest that they wouldn't hybridise even if you tried I guess Stella/Blueether et al might have an actual answer for you, if there is a known answer that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopper Posted January 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 I reckon it may sometimes occur ,albeit rarely, but if the Common bully is involved the morphological features of the offspring would make it difficult to determine a hybrid origin. As the Common shares many outward features with other bully species, hence the name 'Common' ie that it shares many commonalities with the others. I guess if you suspect something especially if the common is involved a DNA test would Be the only way to be sure. This would go for the other species to I gather just like it did with the Tarndale( due to arguments regarding whether it was of Crans or Common origin etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlidcentral Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 Well you could possibly pull off a Tarndale bully x common bully, but that's probably cheating. I'm sure I recall reading of a speculated common hybrid, possibly with a giant. Unfortunately I'm separated from my library currently so cant try validate that recollection for a few weeks. Brendon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I sure I had a common female spawn with a Cran's male last year. Definitely a Cran's male and one of the large female commons was that cream colour of spawning and the eggs were much smaller than the the other Cran's spawning I've had. The eggs didn't last more than two days with the no. of fish in the tank so couldn't tell if they were fertilised Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopper Posted February 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 That's very interesting to know blueether! I have been pondering this question for a while so cheers for clearing this up.I assume the eggs would hatch (as cichlidcentral mentioned hearing of a hybrid) but whether the offspring would be viable to breed them selves is questionable as many hybrids are infertile. Although Splake are fertile and goldfish x common carp females are viable males are not. Also puts forward the question as to whether the offspring go to sea or not ( and then this may depend upon the species crossed)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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