Tag Archives: zoology section

Possibilities of interbreeding fish and creating new species?

I’m asking this same question in the Zoology Section of Science & Mathematics.

I’ve heard of fish hybrids; striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and white bass (Morone chrysops). I know they do it at the hatcheries. How about different species? Let’s say a bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) and a redear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus)? Or a bluegill sunfish and a black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus)? Or a largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and a smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui)?

How about an Oscar (Astronotus ocellatus) and the Red-Bellied Piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri)? Would this combonation be possible at all? How?
In a laboratory or hatchery perhaps.

I’ve heard of people making offspring of lions and tigers mixed, why would this not be possible with fish of relatively similar characteristics?

Also I could care less whether or not they were sterile hybrids.