Same type breeding? or mixed

Hey all, just a thought.... is it possible to breed bn's with different types of bn's or do you need to have a male and female bn of the exact same type to be compatable with mating?

Partly this depends upon how specific or loose you are with the term type. Our classifications of L numbers and even described species in some cases represent regional variations rather than a biologically different critter. If the two are what amounts to regional variants biologically, yes they will "hybridize" if they are truly different biologically then they either won't breed at all or if they do will probably not produce fertile offspring.

There are many purists out there who are adamantly opposed to hybridization of any type and in general hybrids will not be as desirable in the fancy.

I do a lot of reading and sifting through info on the BN, though a lot of it has to be considered hearsay as I can't verify the accuracy of a good portion of it. I have read that there was some deliberate hybridization that took place in the 90s that probably got into the gene pool of the common BN. Also I have read that Ingo Seidel assumes that there were different types of ancistrus that went in to the development of the common aquarium strain BN. The common BN seems to be primarily A. cirrhosus, but since we can't be sure, it is written as A. cf cirrhosus, the cf meaning looks like.

Thanks Amber:)