Cross breeding

[MAGDRL Mom]

Do/will marine fish cross breed? Specifically a Blue Devil Damsel and a Green Chromis.

A friend of mine has a pair that are doing the mating dance thing, share the same cave, etc.

[ShannHell]

I know that some species will crossbreed, but I think they have to be pretty closely related. I have read that different types of tomato clowns will breed, oscellaris and percs will, but i don't know about the chromis and the damsel.

[billsreef]

They need to be in the same genus to successfully crossbreed and produce viable eggs.

[MAGDRL Mom]

Thanks!

[Fishboy42]

Originally posted by billsreef
They need to be in the same genus to successfully crossbreed and produce viable eggs.

How about the Premnas x Amphiprion crosses?! (maybe an exception though; I believe they belong in the same genus anyway)

Matt

[billsreef]

Those would be one of the very exceptions and could even be suggestive that Premnas shouldn't be it's own genus. But I'll leave that to the taxonomists.

[GreshamH]

Originally posted by billsreef
could even be suggestive that Premnas shouldn't be it's own genus.

Tell me when it's safe to come out. I don't want to get caught in any cross fire

[billsreef]

It's safe, I wouldn't shoot at you

[Luis A M]

Originally posted by billsreef
Those would be one of the very exceptions and could even be suggestive that Premnas shouldn't be it's own genus. But I'll leave that to the taxonomists.

I fully agree here
IMHO maroons should be brought back not only to the Amphiprion genus but also into the ocellaris/percula tribe.

[clownfish75]

I think you guys are drawing big conclussions from very limited information. My automatic assumption would be that you couldnt cross outside a genus, but seriously what proof is there in marine fish that this might be so?

There is very little evidence to even show how one could define a species in marine fish as so far in clownfish crosses seem to be fertile, where do you draw the line!!!

Christian

[Luis A M]

Don´t forget that taxonomy is an artificial attempt to arrange natural live and extinct forms in an order where relationships can be understood.
Take maroons;even if they look so related to ocellaris/percula in aspect and behaviour,a "morphological"taxonomist considered that the preopercular (cheek) spine was a character that warranted their removal to a different genus.
And now if ocellaris and maroons interbreed and the progeny is fertile,who´s wrong,the fish or the taxonomist?.
Luckily morphological taxonomy is being replaced by more scientific modern tools.

[billsreef]

Originally posted by Luis A M
Don´t forget that taxonomy is an artificial attempt to arrange natural live and extinct forms in an order where relationships can be understood.

Quite true. It's amazing how many times an animal can get it's name changed. A great example is the African Rift Lake Cichlids, as soon as you learned a species name it would be changed.

[75Gallons]

This may come as a shock to you all but "Genus & species" only have meaning to humans in most cases. The biological species concept says that only animals of the same species can procreate viable offspring and the truth is that thats completely untrue espcially with fish. If a male of any species is around to fertilize the eggs of a female then chances are that at least a few viable offspring will be produced. Some animals have behavioral barriers that prevent mating among other groups but its not impossible or unheard of for that barrier to be crossed.
To sum it up they may mate or they may not who knows lol!

[ShannHell]

Has anyone on here crossed species (clowns or otherwise) that they have pics for? It would be interesting to see a cross between a maroon and a blac perc, for example. I have seen a pic of a dottyback cross from ORA (I think) but otherwise I only see text where such and such has been crossbred,but usually no pics.

[littlefish72]

10 foot pole

[Pea-brain]

A while ago some one crossed 2 seahorses and the babies were fertile I think. It was on seahorse.org

Dan