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how to tell if 2 species will cross breed?

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 11:45 pm
by csmike
As the title said. Is there anyway to tell if 2 given species will cross breed or not? Many thanks.

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:51 am
by Mustafa
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.

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 12:32 pm
by csmike
Thank you for the info.

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 4:46 am
by chlorophyll
How safe is it to assume that Caridina that produce "completely suppressed" young will not crossbreed with those which produce larvae?

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:08 am
by Mustafa
I'd say 100% safe. :)