Do damsels that are congeners but different species mate?

[Zionas]

This is something of curiosity to me. I wonder if Damsels that are of the same genus but are of different species mate with each other? Does this happen in the aquarium? And if anyone has seen in the wild or in an aquarium what their mixed offspring look like, I would be really really curious.

To give a couple examples of what I mean:

Yellowtails and Azures or any combo between the Chrysiptera damsels

Say C. Cyanea x C. Parasema / Hemicyanea or even C. Talboti / Starcki / Rollandi / Traceyi


Or for other genuses:

Say Allen’s and Neon Damsels.


Three / Four Stripe x Domino or Golden Domino Damsel.


Black Axil x C. Viridis


Say I have one C. Parasema and one C. Hemicyanea, or either one of these two with even a C. Cyanea. What are the chances that they’re willing to pair up and even cross breed?

 

[Casket_Case]

I have no idea but that’d be crazy cool! I’m definitely following!

 

[Zionas]

I know there have been Clownfish that are the result of two different species mating!

Like Percula x Ocellaris

Ocellaris x Maroon


I also wonder if C. Arnazae are just C. Parasema x C. Hemicyanea?

 

[ThRoewer]

Who is a congener to whom is debatable after this research: Exploring the radiation of a diverse reef fish family: Phylogenetics of the damselfishes (Pomacentridae), with new classifications based on molecular analyses of all genera
Especially Chrysiptera is currently containing 3 different groups that are not closely related.

 

[Zionas]

Thanks for the article. It looks really interesting. I’ll definitely have a look.

What I really meant to ask is do different species of damsels frequently breed with each other between species?

 

[PatW]

In the wild, con generics rarely mate. It does happen as in the case of wolf coyote hybrids. I think male wolves disperse and are unable to find female wolves and settle for the next best.

You also get this in captive macaws. Different species are often crossed because the sex ratios of certain macaw species are highly skewed. You often see blue and gold macaws crossed with Scarlett macaws.

It sounds feasible. The fish may or may not cooperate. And then comes the hard part, raising the offspring to something approaching adulthood. Commercially, it may not be feasible. Damsels are among the least expensive fish to buy and I don‘t know if they would command a high enough price to make it worth the breeder’s while.

 

[Zionas]

I see. So what do you think are the chances that say if I get one Yellowtail and one Azure or Blue Devil that they might mate? Are the chances low overall?

 

[ThRoewer]

Given that they even kill each other within one species this may not work out well.

As for breeding damsels, there are a few high priced species that would be interesting. But those are generally not the ones moving in such large numbers as Green Chromis for example

 

[Leah Ryan]

It would be awesome to know this. It would be kind of cool to see some different damsels than I'm used to. Kind of like all of the different clowns that I see around these days, that were not around 2 decades ago, but I don't know if we should be encouraging that. Kind of like those stupid glo-fish you see in freshwater aquariums at the large pet stores. Could those things actually survive in the wild? A new hybrid species of damsel would be cool though!

 

[User1]

Given that they even kill each other within one species this may not work out well.

As for breeding damsels, there are a few high priced species that would be interesting. But those are generally not the ones moving in such large numbers as Green Chromis for example

Starcki comes to mind. Pretty fish. Seasonal it seems. Larger side almost looks like a pygmy angelfish.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

Starcki comes to mind. Pretty fish. Seasonal it seems. Larger side almost looks like a pygmy angelfish.

That woukd be cool, Chrysiptera galba too, think its a close relative of the starcki. Chrysiptera rapanui too but slim chance of that

Zionas thought you didnt like intentional hyrbids/designer species, lol.

 

[Zionas]

Lol I don’t like designer species but crosses between naturally occurring species (in their original forms) are fine lol, as long as they aren’t sterile. I was really just curious to see if species within the same genus would mate.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

Lol yea, definitely an interesting subject.

 

[mort]

I don't think it's that likely. If you look at damsels then they lay their eggs on the substrate, demersal spawning, and provide parental care till birth (or at least the damsels you are looking at, others use different reproductive methods). This means that the parents need to pair up to produce eggs and only if they are fertilised and viable will any potential hybrids be made whereas natural hybrids in other fish are generally a process of broadcast spawning where no pairing is needed. Hybrid tangs and angels are good examples of this where a spawning frenzy creates the hybrids.

With the mixed heritage clownfish then as far as I'm aware it's only closely related species that are naturally crossed. Percs and occs are close enough for it to work but for the other, imo silly mixes, like occs x maroon, as far as I know they don't have a occelaris and maroon mating but rather cross them themselves (the first mix of this type as far as im aware was by accident with two pairs of different species mating in connecting tanks and fertilising by coincidence but this started the trend and it might have changed).

Fish tend to know what they are through evolution. Some might hang out with different species but they have an in built knowledge of their own species and won't even consider congeners as potential mates. You can see this with wrasse, a halichoeres chrysus and halichoeres leucoxanthus may look similar but they know they are different. This is shown in the fact two males, one of each species, can be kept in the same tank without any aggression but keep two males of the same species and they will fight. It's the same with various other near identical species so I don't think it's likely that you would see different species of damsels pair.

 

[Timfish]

My guess is it's happening fairly often in larger tanks with a mix of damsels. As I currently understand the Chrysiptera spp. prefer to lay eggs in caves. I have on several iccasions seen what appeared to have been initial breeding behavior - one fish enticing another into the aquascaping - between Yellowtail, C. parasema and Fini Blue Devil, C. cyan. I've never seen any eggs however to confirm actual breeding.

 

[Zionas]

That’s very interesting. I can totally see the Yellowtail and Yellow Bellies (Azure) seeing each other as close enough to breed. How is the temperament of the Cyanea and Taupou in your experience? Are they as bad as people say?

 

[Timfish]

. . . How is the temperament of the Cyanea and Taupou in your experience? Are they as bad as people say?

For the most part the only differences I see between the Chrysiptera species I keep is coloration. Established female clowns are noticably worse in tempermant.

 

[Zionas]

That’s very interesting.