Will hansbaenschi and eureka red cross breed?

[Samma3l]

I like the look of these fish, though have heard that many Aulonocara will interbreed. Will these two species do that?

If yes, is there any Aulonocara that will not cross with hansbaenschi?

Cheers for your help.

T.

[aussiem]

I strongly advise that under no circumstance should you put two species/morphs

of Aulonocara together as they will cross,and apart from that how will you tell the girls apart.

[Matthew]

Absolutely agree. They will cross almost for sure.

I know its a bugger just get another tank. MTS awaits!

[Samma3l]

I thought it was fairly easy to tell the girls apart?

I'm dumb, what does MTS mean?

[Cuong]

Multiple Tank Syndrome

[YeW]

It's very difficult to tell female Aulonocara apart (there are a few species where this is possible).

It's a disaster waiting to happen. Dont mix malawi cichlids, particularly similar species, in breeding colonies. Most fish will interbreed.

[Phenomena]

Here's my experience on the other side on the coin:

I mixed large colony of A. stuartgranti Chilumba and A. jacobfreibergi Eureka. The colony were large, the Chilumba were 4m + 20f, Eureka 1m + 10f. I used them as hosts for my S. multipunctatus.

My answer to your question:

There is a possiblity they can cross breed, especially when the colony is small and one of the male from both species is dominant over the other males of both species. I strongly advise you not to put them in the same tank to breed if you're going to sell the fry.

Yes it's easy to tell the difference between females of different groups such as stuartgranti type and jacobfreibergi type. It gets tricky if they're from the same group, especially the stuartgranti.

In my case, I found that they bred among their own species. They can tell and prefer to breed with their own species. I never found any of my males trying to attract females from the other group. Of course, this takes into account that I don't sit there and witness each and every spawn.

If my memory serves me right it is also mentioned in the "Enjoying Cichlids" - Second Edition that it is possible to mix peacocks from different groups for breeding. I have to have a look again on this one.

[phatoscarlover]

Yeah id strongly encourage you not to mix any types of Aulonocara together. Ive got 14 diffrent morph's and everyone of them has there own tank. You can usually tell alot of them apart by bodyshape, finsize,eggspots etc. but in a breeding situation i would never take the risk. There are very few people who agree with the concept that peacocks can be kept and bred in an aquarium without crossbreeding...

Cheers Andy