A Quick Rant on Hybrids (the fish, not the cars)

[mwp]

OK, so even though I "despise" hybrids, I found myself owning a pair I posted this up for the folks at Rareclownfish.com - http://www.rareclownfish.com/forums/...ead.php?t=1128

Amphiprion (polymnus X sebae) "White Tipped Clownfish"




No ID given, asked them for their guesses. 3 got it right, while 4 got it wrong. If I had to put my intial "guess" in on them, I would've been wrong as well.

Now, that's perfectly understandable since I didn't give them any clue as to what the fish were. It proves a point I've raised in the past - hybrids can wreak havoc on the captive bred gene pool.

When I was given this pair of fish, I was told they were "polymnus/sebae", i.e. that means to me "imported as un ID'd, could be either polymnus or sebae".

The parents look like Basically Black Saddlebacks...except they had full bars. OK, that could just be a variation. Had I not talked further with the breeder, I would've treated these fish as Black Saddlebacks (A. polymnus). No doubt they'll probably look a lot like Black Saddlebacks when they grow up. But as juvies, well, they sure look a lot like misbarred A. sebae. So a lot of folks would've treated these as Sebaes, and would have bred and sold them as Sebaes had no additional information been given.

But on that followup, it was clarified that they weren't "polymnus/sebae" but the parents were in fact "polymnus X sebae". The PARENTS THEMSELVES are hybrids. So I'm sitting in possesion of a pair of 2nd generation hybrids that right now, look like sebaes, but as adults, will look a lot like Black Saddlebacks.

We see this happen in the Cichlid arena all the time...you buy something sold as something and it turns out nothing like you expect, or a very poor "similar, but not right" looking fish. Victorian Cichlids, Peacocks and Mbuna are the ones that suffer the most from this. Those fish that don't color up like they should turn out to be "worthless". All the investment of time, tankspace, feed and money are down the drain.

I believe we owe it to our future to make sure we have our ID's correct and keep our "species" true. I'm sure it's great that there's all sorts of Percula / Ocellaris "varients" out there, but what if someone breeds Black OC's to Regular OC's and they all turn out Black. If sold as simply Black OC's, or even for that matter if they are picked up with no proper ID and ID'd as "Black OC's", well, when they're bred, who's to say their offspring will be Black? They very well may not be! Imagine the confusion / disappointment etc.

FWIW, I love the pair and hope they do well in the years to come, but if I ever breed and sell them I'm making 110% clear exactly what they are to everyone who buys them or resells them.

Matt