A.Pertensis & A.Uaupesi will they cross?

[ARWoodi]

Hi

I have a tank that housed the 2 mentioned species. I know Uaupesi is from the Pertensis family and due to lack of tank I have to house them together temporarily but my worry is now will they crossbreed? If that ever happens what will be the offspring be? Would be interesting is it? or maybe it's already happened in the wild...

Anyway, I am in the process of getting a new tank just to seperate both the species.

 

[Mike Wise]

I doubt that you will have any problems with crossbreeding. Although both species are from the same species-lineage, they are not really that closely related. Even the females are easy to separate. pertensis-complex species show a spot on the caudal peduncle (caudal spot) that is separated from the lateral band. A. uaupesi does not have a caudal spot; the lateral band extends back into the tail. Besides, these species tend to be rather 'picky' with whom they spawn, and need very specialized water conditions. If kept in standard aquarium conditions, they will happily live together without producing any fry.

BTW there are a lot of fish sold as A. pertensis. The 'type' A. pertensis is rare in the hobby. Usually we see A. cf pertensis (=A. cf. meinkeni of old). I wonder which you have. Whichever species you have, I'm sure you will find them interesting.

 

[ARWoodi]

Thanx Mike for your reply, will try to snap a photo of them and post it for identification.

The only thing is that why I ask is because I've seen the Uaupesidoing the flaring stuff, wriggling it's tail to the Pertensis female. I have seperate now seperate the uaupesi into its own tank now just to avoid complication, to me at least.