Hybridization generates a hopeful monster: a hermaphroditic selfing cichlid

What is it about?

The fish was kept in an aquarium to be photographed. An isolated mouth brooding female sometimes spawn under these conditions, but quickly the eggs are lost. To our surprise, this female continued to mouth brood. After a few weeks we took her out of the tank and gently released a few fry from her mouth. We knew that there was no way another fish could have fertilized the eggs, but the most likely would have been cloning or another parthenogenetic mechanism both with a clear fingerprint in the genome. Both these mechanisms would be worth publishing but what we saw when we did the genetic paternity analyses was even more unique – “she” clearly was the father of the offspring.

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Why is it important?

It is important for scientists to publish these rare findings. It helps us to reject certain hypothesis (e.g. it is impossible, compare with Popper’s black Swan – one black swan is enough to reject the statement that all swans are white) and it will make it possible to do research on rare phenomena – as is the case of facultative parthenogenesis.