A. hongsloi breeding...good plan for genetic diversity or creating bad mutts?

[Russ Hennessey]

Hello fellow apisto-addicts.
i am breeding A. hongsloi and have 2 pairs of domestic bred fish that were sold to me as A. hongsloi species. I just picked up a trio 1m/2f of the A. hogsloi form ii from a LFS. I was thinking to mix and match the fish to diversify my gene pool as all of these are captive bred and they probably are siblings. Now that I have them (form ii) home and in quarantine I thought I'd check to get some opinions on whether I am smart to mix the fish and maybe create mutts...not sure if that's what they will be if they breed.
Question: is it better to try to mix them up or to keep them with their exact matches ie) form ii with form ii'?
2nd Question: if i do mix them up will i be creating hybrids or just muts? I guess another question would be do they apistogramma babies take on moms coloration or dads or 50/50?
Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
Fins Up Russ

 

[Mike Wise]

A. hongsloi CF II is a domestic strain composed of several different forms/species/populations from the hongsloi-complex (macmasteri-group), so they are already mutts (hybrids). I doubt that you can mix them any more than they are. If you want to keep the strain pure, then line breed. Otherwise cross the 2 best (in your opinion). The only exception is if you know your fish are wild caught from a known location. Then I would only line breed.

 

[Russ Hennessey]

A. hongsloi CF II is a domestic strain composed of several different forms/species/populations from the hongsloi-complex (macmasteri-group), so they are already mutts (hybrids). I doubt that you can mix them any more than they are. If you want to keep the strain pure, then line breed. Otherwise cross the 2 best (in your opinion). The only exception is if you know your fish are wild caught from a known location. Then I would only line breed.

THanks Mike, good information and i will continue to line breed my hongsloi. Cheers Russ