# Parrot and Red Zebra Cichlids Mating?



## Modell (Jun 16, 2016)

I'm still rather new to the cichlid world and was wondering if a parrot and a red zebra could mate? I have what I believe to be a male parrot and a female red zebra together in a tank, they get along wonderfully with the only source of conflict being the occasional spat over dinner. To address concerns that anyone may have over the red zebra's speed advantage, the parrot seems to be just as fast as the zebra. They also appear to take turns while eating. They've been together in the tank for a couple months now and are building nests out of the gravel and being super possesive of the tank as of late. I tried to find out if they will be able to breed, but I have found no information on the subject. I'm also not sure if the parrot is fertile, as that is quite a problem as I understand for male parrots. The red zebra is definetly the beta of the tank, while the parrot rules. The red zebra is an albino and was bullied in the pet store tank before I bought her, which I believe may be part of the reason that she's so docile. While I don't particularly care if they succesfully mate or not, I still would like to know.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The parrot is a hybrid but I believe both species are SA...not mouth brooders. The zebra will only mate with another mouth brooder.


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> The parrot is a hybrid but I believe both species are SA...not mouth brooders. The zebra will only mate with another mouth brooder.


The parrot is not a hybrid of South American species. It is a hybrid of Central American species (Central America is actually part of the NA continent). Red devil/midas is one parent. And good reason to suppose the other parent is synspilum as 2 threads have shown some offspring from this cross to be blood parrot-like ( though synspilum as the other parent is really not quite a proven fact).
The red zebra is an African cichlid and a "haplochromine" (tribe Pseudocenilibrini). It is too genetically distant from any CA or SA cichlid to crossbreed. It has yet to be demonstrated that any African cichlid can be crossed with a New world cichlid.
It is also not true that a red zebra can be crossed with any other cichlid that is a mouth brooder. To my knowledge , no "Haplochromine" has ever been crossed with a "Tilapine". Nor has any mouth brooding African cichlid ever been crossed with delayed mouth brooders from SA (such as some acaras, geophagus and severums). While breeding method would present another hurdle, the determining factor is how genetically close the parents are. Research in aquaculture has shown numerous crosses of substrate spawning Coptodon species with mouth brooding Oreochromis can produce some offspring ( though none of these crosses are actually used in aquaculture). So spawning method is not an insurmountable hurdle, as long as the species are closely related enough.
Basically, if the cichlid is from lake Malawi (such as the red zebra) it can crossbreed with any other lake Malawi cichlid, since all the lake Malawi cichlids in the hobby are "Haplochromines". Though some what less likely, it is also possible to cross breed with lake Victorian cichlids since they are also all "Haplochromines". Tropheus from lake Tanganyika are also closely related enough to crossbreed with lake Malawi cichlids, though this is an even less likely cross.
CA cichlids (such as the blood parrot) can cross breed with any CA cichlid, as well as a few SA cichlids ( though not all SA cichlids). Again, the key is being closely related enough.


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## Modell (Jun 16, 2016)

Alright, they just were behaving as if they wanted to mate, I guess they're a bit confused. I didn't really want fry anyways, I don't know what I would've done with them all. Thank you for clearing things up.


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