Can fish breed with other species other than their own?

Question

I have a blue gourami and a sucker fish in my fish tank. The blue gourami looks like it's pregnant. Could this be possible? They are the only fish in the tank, and have been for over 2 years.

Answer 1

No, definitely impossible.
Gouramis don't get pregnant, they have eggs. It is possible that if she is female, for her to have eggs. Female gouramis should carry eggs most of the time when they are healthy. However, without a male gourami to spawn with her and fertilize their eggs, there will never be any babies, no matter how hard the sucker fish tries ;)

Fish need to be the same species to breed. Some similar fish can breed together even if they aren't the exact same species. If ever you're curious about whether two similer fish can breed, you can usually tell by their latin names.
For example, gouramis.
A gold gourami is Trichogaster trichopterus.
A blue gourami is also Trichogaster trichopterus.
They could breed.
However, a pearl gourami is Trichogaster leerii. A pearl and a gold gourami could not breed. In some rare cases, two fish with the same first latin name but different last latin name could breed, but the likelyhood of producing viable offspring is low.
A good example of this would be donkeys (Equus asinus) and Horses (Equus caballus). They CAN breed, and will produce a mule, but mules are always infertile.

Answer 2

The answer to your initial question is yes. (Honestly I didn't know this either, I actually looked this up on the net) Different fish of different species can breed. It is called Hybridisation is not always deliberate: with the Aulonocara (Malawi Peacock Cichlids), most of the females are quite similar and in a community tank, the father of a particular brood of fry may not belong to the same species as the mother. Care must also be taken in this regard (similar females) with Killifish.

hybrid striped bass -- cross between white bass (Morone Chrysops) and largemouth bass (Micropterus Salmoides)
saugeye -- hybrid between walleye and sauger

Hybreds have been around not only the fish community but the animal community as well. With the Australian cichlid there is a great deal of concern about hybridisation because of the low available gene pool for pure stock, that many dedicated breeders are devoting their lives to preserving. In the case of many of the Lake Victoria cichlids, which are now extinct in the wild, this work is quite literally of vital importance.

When buying cichlids, or any fish aquarists should make a point of getting to know what wild specimens look like, to guard against obtaining hybrids, or even 'pure' fish that may not be compatible with others in their breeding tanks.

If your blue gourami is pregnant, she could have eggs. It is doubtfull the two would actually go thru the spawning process. Also, be carefull she does not get egg bound since you have no male. Egg impaction is not uncommon. Eggs which are impacted may be "stuck" because of scarring in the oviducts or the cloaca. It's also possible that as she becomes gravid, it collapses the tubes. IN any event, no chemical or massage will help. In fact, massage will rupture the ovaries and allow the eggs into the open peritoneum, which usually kills the fish.

you fish however could also be suffering from a type of Dropsy
Acute Dropsy - Internal bacterial infection can cause internal bleeding and thus cause acute dropsy.

Chronic Dropsy - cancer: In this case, the abdomen is slow to swell as the cancer affects the fish's internal organs. If the fish is not isolated in the early stages of the disease, it could spread to other fish that are being housed with the ill fish.

Chronic Dropsy - parasites: Internal parasites can cause dropsy(abdominal swelling) because they are rather large parasites or because of the damage they are causing with the fish's organs. The abdomen tends to swell over a period of time if the fish is infested with internal parasites. It is best to isolate the sick fish at once to help maintain the outbreak of disease with other fish!

Answer 3

Yes!! But not your gourami and sucker fish. If the gourami is fat it either has a disease called dropsy or might have unfertilized eggs inside.
All living things are classified by kingdom, phylem, class, order, family, genus, and species. For fish, they usually just have to be in the same family to intermix, and the offspring are sterile. Most mammals are in the same genus to mix. A gourami and sucker fish aren't even close.

Answer 4

well i think youve already gotten the easiest with platys and guppys but if you want to try to get perfect water chemistry then mollies are also live bearers but only breed in near perfect conditions, ive also heard that snails breed readily with proper conditions but you cant really sex them so you just have to get a few and pray

Answer 5

Swordtails can mate with Platys, and some different kinds of killifish can mate with each other.

But there's no way those two mated. It may very well have dropsy, a very deadly disease that causes the fish to bloat. Monitor its behavior closely.

Answer 6

Certain species can breed if they are closly related, but in your case not a chance. A female fish can still lay eggs, they just won't get fertilized.

Answer 7

Wow .... geez already people.

To the asker: Zoe's is the only answer that is exactly right. No they can't interbreed.

Answer 8

nope not possible -- your blue gourami might be getting bloated from something else -- is it getting fat or could it be disease like internal parasites, swim bladder, even dropsy.

Answer 9

Yes, they can, but you really need to check with a vet to see if it's pregnant.

Answer 10

yes they can interbreed