Yellow Lab Hybrids

[dunl]

I'm not so sure they are 'knowingly' distributing hybrids, anymore than some of the stores that are selling them.

I would say that any retailer who knowingly sells assorted peacocks, or who is very knowledgable, but tries to pass off completely yellow labs as line bred or those gross pale blue "Blue face haps", knows EXACTLY what they are doing. :guns:

[tc51]

Thanks for the info, Neil. I guess it all goes back to the old argument of wc, f1, f2, etc and being able to prove to the best of you ability that the fish are indeed what they are being sold as.

As you said, it will be a sad day for the hobby when the species of fish have been so hydridized that we will not know what we will be getting, I am still quite nieve when it comes to unelthical business end of the hobby, but I do know that putting these mutts out for sale knowinglly is reprehensible the almighty buck speaks again.

I would say that any retailer who knowingly sells assorted peacocks, or who is very knowledgable, but tries to pass off completely yellow labs as line bred or those gross pale blue "Blue face haps", knows EXACTLY what they are doing. 2guns.gif

I hope you are wrong, Dunl, but I suspect you are right.

This is what makes this board so great, the sharing of this type of info is invaluable to guys like me, who just want to have the cleanest best looking fish with the best lines possable.

Thanks guys.

Tom.

Edited December 20, 2004 by tc51

[RD.]

I would say that any retailer who knowingly sells assorted peacocks, or who is very knowledgable, but tries to pass off completely yellow labs as line bred or those gross pale blue "Blue face haps", knows EXACTLY what they are doing.

I agree, I'm sure there are retail dealers that are well aware of what's taking place, and I'm also certain there are those who don't have a freakin clue. They order yellow labs, and when they come in that's what they see, yellow labs, some with weak submarginal black banding in the dorsal fins, some with normal markings, and some that are for the most part solid yellow. Take the local Petland for example, the manager that brought them in had no idea those labs were cross bred until I pointed it out. Same with the ones James brought in from BC several months back, he thought they looked awesome. I can't blame people like that for not spotting the subtle differences between a pure strain, and a hybrid cross, and to be honest, some of those hybrids from BC did in fact look to be pure. (until you took a close look at their siblings when they started to mature)

That's the worst part of all of this, some of these fish do in fact come out looking perfectly normal, with the right color, and markings. It's not as though they look like a peacock, that's got the face of a Labeotropheus fuelleborni.

[dunl]

True, so true. And unfortunately, all we can do is educate those people as to what they are actually carrying.

To me, the real problem is the people "in the know" who sell hybrids knowingly. Just think...how many people who run a local Wall-World fish department head off to a LFS, to check out how a "real fish department" is run? And then see "line bred all yellow labs"? Kind of hard to learn what is right that way....

[RD.]

To me, the real problem is the people "in the know" who sell hybrids knowingly.

Yeah, it sucks, big time.

The kicker is some of these unscrupulous dealers are the same people who sell African fish as 'wild caught', and F1's, and somehow I'm supposed to suddenly TRUST them. :cuss: