A case of crossbreeding in Hypancistrus
(L 136 x L 066) |
| Yann Fulliquet |
his is a little summary of what was observed during an accidental
case of crossbreeding which involved two undescribed species
of the genus Hypancistrus. I was keeping 5 Hypancistrus
sp. L 066 along with 4 Hypancistrus sp. L 136.
Both males and females were present for both species. Several
caves were placed in the tank hoping to successfully breed
both.
I actually never thought of any possible crossbreeding between
the two, because their colour patterns are very different.
With L 066, the overall colouration is white with a lot
of curved black lines. With L 136, the overall colouration
is black with small white to yellowish spots all over the
body. In both species the belly is white. Their adult size
is also different. L 066 can grow to 15cm; they usually
become mature at around 10cm. L 136 grows to 10cm, and usually
becomes mature at around 6-7cm. Everything went on pretty
well. I noticed one day that one L 066 male was in a cave.
With this species, when a male is guarding a cave, it is
usually a sign of his willingness to spawn, the rest of
the time they will not use them. I did several water changes
to simulate a rainy season and also to stimulate the pairs.
After a few days of treatment, I found a female L 136 trapped
with a male L 066. I first thought that due to their differences
nothing would happen. A day or two later the female was
out. I checked the cave and I saw about 20 eggs of about
3mm in diameter. Even if I disturbed the male, he never
ate the eggs and was taking good care of the eggs.
I believe this happened because of several reasons. The
first one is that the dominant male in the tank was clearly
this L 066 male. He had the darkest colouration; his whole
body was covered with odontodes. The other L 066 males were
rather lighter in colouration and almost no odontodes were
present, at least on the plates. At that time the females
were probably not fully mature. My L 136 males were also
being dominated by the L 066. I never found any of them
in a cave. One of the L 136 female was clearly ready to
spawn and chose the only male which was "available"
or ready to spawn.
After about 8 days the eggs hatched. I left the eggs with
the male for about a week and then managed to take them
out of the cave, rearing them separately. At this time they
could easily be mistaken for young Hypancistrus
zebra. They were placed in a separate floating
plastic nursery. Just before they had completely absorbed
their yolk sac, the young started dying en masse. I checked
the water parameters, but everything was fine. I still only
managed to save one young. I don't know if these are more
fragile than others, but compared to L 028 and L 260, two
other undescribed species of Hypancistrus, the
young were looking as hardy as the others. This remains
a mystery to me. Anyway, the remaining fish finally absorbed
the yolk sac, and was fed with
Spirulina tablet fragments, chopped bloodworms, and small
pellets for fry. With this food, he grew pretty well: at
about the same rate as other Hypancistrus species.
At this time it was looking rather like miniature copy of
the father. Still one or two spot like shapes could be seen.
As time passed and as he was growing, I could see that the
overall colouration was more black than white, the lines
were disappearing to let spots take their place. Only the
fins have the typical pattern of L 066 with white and black
lines. Most of the white lines on the body have totally
disappeared. There are many white spots and several lines
that look like spots, but are in fact interrupted lines.
Hypancistrus
sp. (L 066)
Adult male
|
Hypancistrus
sp. (L 066)
Adult male
|
Hypancistrus sp.
"Hybrid"
(L 136 x L 066) |
Hypancistrus sp.
"Hybrid"
(L 136 x L 066) |
Hypancistrus sp.
"Hybrid"
(L 136 x L 066) |
At first I regretted that crossbreeding happened, as I like
to keep pure strains of fish, but now I must admit it was
an interesting experience. The fruit of this unusual spawn
is curiosity. It is also a good thing to have such fish
referenced, as with the increasing popularity of these fish,
people could tend to create new and rare species. I sincerely
discourage people to intentionally cross species, and if
it happened by accident, the young should at no point be
sold to someone else. There are enough species in the wild
to please anyone and it is not necessary to create any new
ones. Several people have told me that I should have kept
more youngsters, so I could have tried to make them spawn
with their parents. This would have helped to determine
how closely related the two species are. But like I said,
I am not fond of crossbreeding, and I do my best to avoid
such things happening.
Originally published in CatChat 4(4): 9-10. www.catfishstudygroup.org
All photo's by Author
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