how to tell if 2 species will cross breed?

csmike · Post by **csmike** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 11:45 pm

As the title said. Is there anyway to tell if 2 given species will cross breed or not? Many thanks.

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:51 am

No, there is no way to tell just by looking. You would have to read the scientific literature and try to figure out how closely related two shrimp varieties are or if they are maybe subspecies. I have done that for most species and written it down on this website. Read the shrimp varieties page and you will see notes on interbreeding. Where you don't see anything it means they have not interbred with any of the shrimp on that page in my tanks and (most likely) cannot interbreed. Other than that the only way of finding out is to conduct experiments with a male and female of the two target species and see if you get viable offspring.

csmike · Post by **csmike** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 12:32 pm

Thank you for the info.

chlorophyll · Post by **chlorophyll** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 4:46 am

How safe is it to assume that Caridina that produce "completely suppressed" young will not crossbreed with those which produce larvae?

Post by **Mustafa** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:08 am

I'd say 100% safe.