# Texas? Convict? Possible hyrbids?



## crazyim

So I got some fish from a friend, who knew that they were cichlids, and that's it. I've been trying to find the species and sex of them since I took them in. There are two larger and 3 smaller fish, that he says he believes are the offspring of the larger fish. He said the other 3 just appeared one day, and grew up apparently. I'm assuming they're the only fry left that weren't eaten.

Anyway, the largest, looks like a female Texas cichlid to me, at about 5-6" or so, mostly grey, very dull, and digs like nobodies business...










I had another friend who told me it was a JD, but I haven't seen any color come out at all, and tank conditions are ideal. It's got red specs along the top of it's dorsal.

The next largest is about 4" or so, and pal's around with the large one. It seems like whenever they're around each other, this one gets extremely brilliant definition of it's colors. His stripes get dark, and his belly gets a deep deep blue / black color do it.










This is the one I THINK looks like a convict, but again, I can't tell for sure. The three other fish in the tank are all smaller in size, ranging from 1.5-3" and have characteristics from both these fish. One of them has the especially dark markings from the second guy, and the other two seem more pale.


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## Tiktaalik Owner

The first is a Herichthys cyanoguttatus, or Texas cichlid.

The second is a Texas-Convict hybrid. Both awesome-looking fish. I swear convicts will breed with dolphins.


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## zenobium

Yeah, Convict-Texans are great looking fish.

I've heard them referred to as "George Bush" cichlids in the past


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## Azedenkae

Oh wow, if that's a texas-convict hybrid, wow.

I'm trying to breed my SGT with a convict, but it's not working... yet.  Really curious as to how that possible-texas-convict came to be. 

SGTs ain't texas, aye, but still.


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## nifferty

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fb ... =1&theater


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## bernie comeau

Tiktaalik Owner said:


> I swear convicts will breed with dolphins.


Funny how when ever there is some kind of convict X CA cichlid cross the convict get's blamed for it :lol: What do you suppose the convict is crossing with? I don't beleive they are any more inclined to crossbreed then are many other CA cichlids. The internet is full of examples of all kinds of CA cichlid crosses.

In over 3 decades of keeping cons, not once have I ever observed any attempt by a convict to mate with another species of CA cichlid. Though I have had many, many instances of 2 female cons pairing up.

I crossed male texas with female mayan many years ago. Had a male texas pair up with a female jag, though no eggs were ever layed. Had a smaller male texas persistently attempt to pair up with a larger female RD/midas....though the RD/midas eventually got fed up and killed it. IME, a texas cichlid is very, very inclined to attempt to breed with any other CA cichlid. And one could probably find just as many examples of texas X other CA cichlid crossess as one would, convict crosses.


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## AquaticTurtleGuy

Bernie,

what did your texas x mayan hybrid look like? do you have pictures? i ask because i have a cichlid that i believe to be a red texas made by a texas cichlid and a mayan cichlid. it has the body and shiny blue scales of a texas, but a dark red body, red fins, and black bars that only show up when being aggressive.


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## BC in SK

AquaticTurtleGuy said:


> what did your texas x mayan hybrid look like? do you have pictures?


Have no pictures. As mentioned, it was many years ago.... around 1980. Not much recollection of what they looked like as I only grew them to a young juvie stage and then used them as feeders along with Mayan X JD hybrids that were given to me from my brother.


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## decepticonpaul

aquaticturtleguy do you have a pic of your texas cichlid that you can post?


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## m1ke715m

zenobium said:


> Yeah, Convict-Texans are great looking fish.
> 
> I've heard them referred to as "George Bush" cichlids in the past


hahahaha now thats funny


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