How Hybrid Fish and Corals can Create New Species

[@ReefMan]

Sorry about the clipping audio in this video! I'm not sure what happened, hopefully it's not too annoying! 😀

[@maceysdaddy5150]

Very interesting! I’m glad there are people that understand this science. I didn’t notice audio problems. Your tank looks like it has stabilized. Are you going to keep it FOWLR? I’m 65 and don’t see myself planting & trimming coral at 75 and will likely go FOWLR at some point. Keep up the great videos.

[@ReefMan]

I’m going to start slowly adding frags. It’ll take a while, but I do want a reef again

[@mrsupersym]

Hi ReefMan. I'm very much interested in coral microbiomes and how the relationship with coral impacting the coral coloration. If you have in depth material on this matter it would be superb. Thank you in advance.

[@ReefMan]

I haven’t found much on microbiomes and color. Most of the research I’ve seen is stress related. I’ll try to see if there’s anything though! There’s a lot of research going on around probiotics right now.

[@mrsupersym]

@@ReefMan Will wait for your update in the future. Thanks dude.

[@mitian]

Nice video thanks, will you eventually more corals in your tank? and kind of lights do you use?

[@ReefMan]

Yep! I actually just glued down some frags yesterday. I also bought a couple nice chalice frags for the bottom that will be here soon. Slowly but surely! I use (and love) the ATI Straton fixtures - I have three over my tank.

[@AbsoluteZero6714]

Nice video as always! Do you still have your pair of Potter’s Angels? How many years have you had them and do they still spawn regularly? Did you know that sometimes a harem of Potter’s Angels in the wild will sometimes include one or two Fisher’s Angels? By far the rarest hybrid discovered to date that involves the Potter’s is the hybrid with the Flame Angel, which is very rare in the Hawaiian Islands and some are probably waifs from other places. Only 3 or 4 have been found to date. However, Brian Greene’s diving videos showed some Potter’s Angels in close proximity with the uber rare Centropyge Nahackyi. So who knows? Perhaps one of these days we’re going to see evidence of mixed species pairs / harems between C. Potteri and C. Nahackyi. Sometimes this hybridization leads to stunning results, with a notable example between the “Tigerpyge” which is a cross between the Lemonpeel and Eibli Angels in the regions where they overlap (the boundary between the Pacific and Indian Oceans). Wrasses are known to hybridize too, although wrasse hybrids aren’t as well understood as Angel and butterfly hybrids. A curious case for me is the case of the Shephard’s Angel which is pretty much endemic to Guam with a few in the Bonin Islands of southern Japan. I sometimes suspect they’re a hybrid between Flames and Rusty Angels that became its own species over a long period of time. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day they’re discovered to just be a hybrid population of Flames and Rusty Angels to begin with.

[@AbsoluteZero6714]

If you know John Coppolino (copps), he believes Centropyge Shepardi is its own species formed out of millenniums of hybridization between the Flame and Rusty Angels.

[@ReefMan]

I still have my potteri pair, and they do still spawn in my tank. That’s really interesting! I hadn’t heard of them associating with other species, but it’s not that surprising. Thank you!!

[@AbsoluteZero6714]

@@ReefMan You’re welcome! I’m glad you found it interesting!

[@aarondus]

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@damcmadlad2975]

So let me get this straight so long as a fish is in the same family as the other then it is possible for a hybrid to form yes I know I'm extremely slow

[@ReefMan]

That’s a valid question! It’s not always the case that fish in the same genus can interbreed. Sometimes they can though, and certain genuses like the Pygmy angelfish are very capable of it.

[@damcmadlad2975]

@@ReefMan I see thanks