SERIOSLY terrible news!!

[Sarc]

OK, here is the story

I live in South Africa and have been looking for acropora for 2 years. I recently moved to a new town and found a nice LFS that started looking for it for me. I phoned him today and he said 'O yeah, great news Chris, i found acropra for you.'
Me 'Nice, where is it from?'
LFS 'France, o yeah, its all tank-bred!'
me 'NICE, what else coming in?'
LFS'Gettin tangs, they have some nice HYBRED TANGS'
me'WHAT???!!!'
LFS' O yeah, they are a mix between yellows and another tang. They also got mottled yellows with silver dots and black dots'

Marine fish come in so many different forams already, do we really NEED to have hybrids?? The nice thing is that these are tank-spawned and reared yellows but i don't like the idea of hybrids.

Disgusting!!!
Chris

 

[Neal358]

i think it hapens in nature also my lfs hade one that was a cross between and powder-brown and an achillles i looked really cool

 

[Quillen]

as a future genetisist, I find that fascinating. It doesn't bother me if the tang is a cross breed, I can see your concern though

. It does happen in nature all the time, attraction is a interesting thing.

 

[rfs1rock]

Hello,I think thats great news.Thats nature.

 

[Enkidu]

Shoot, I was all geared up for a "my tank exploded" thread.

Hybrid animals is not a problem IMHO. They usually can't breed anyway so its not like its going to become a new species.

 

[danmhippo]

Cool! Evolution in progress!

BTW, are you sure that was not a tang with ich? Or a tang under stressed? Or, simply a specie of tang that your LFS has never seen before?

Having said that, a couple weeks ago, My LFS said to me, "come take a look at this one, this is a rare mixed tang....." It turned out to be a mimic tang. Don't trust 100% what your LFS told you until you actually see it yourself.

 

[Len]

Hybridization is not all that common in the wild, and occur only in the absence of conspecific partners. Hybridization serves little useful evolutionary purpose, since offsprings are more often then not infertile.

I see no problem with hyrbridizing fishes for the ornamental trade, granted no one's stupid enough to throw a bunch of those fishes back into the reefs. If the history of the freshwater hobby is any indiction, once we understand the reproductive processes of most of our marine fishes, it's inevitable that crossbreeds will be attempted.

I was unaware people who captively breeding tangs. Most tangs' life cycles are complex (e.g requirement of open ocean for courtship). It's exciting news indeed if tangs are being captively bred. Hopefully, the LFS isn't just acting like a LFS and propagating bad information

 

[Quillen]

hey leonard, I buy tank raised Flagtail/Regal/blue tangs from the LFS. They are extremely tiny, it is wonderful though.

 

[Len]

My bad. I am aware Paracanthurus hepatus are being bred in captivity. What I had in mind was Zebrasoma tangs (those being discussed in this thread). I understand that observed mating has occurred for some species (e.g. Z.flavescens), but am not aware of any who've successfully reared fries to maturity.

 

[platylover]

My understanding was that Paracanthurus hepatus was being tank raised from larvae collected in the oceans, and not trully captive-bred.

 

[Sarc]

HI
I had a problem with the person that would take these and then reintroduce them into the wild. THis LFS of mine is a good one and i do *gasp* trust his information. I have no problem if they woudl naturally occur but i have a problem with them messing with the fish. What happens if in the future they start fusing coral gametes and breeding hybrid corals that grow well in captivity? Eventually all the corals would be contaminated and then if they were to be introduced back into the oceans, they wouldn't grow well and we might end up losing reefs etc etc. (worst case scenario, *shrug*)

CHris