Purposeful hybridization of these species is bothersome

[bekateen]

Miah, M.F., & Chakrabarty, A. (2018). Enhancement of Genetic Diversity through Cross Breeding of Two Catfish (Heteropneustes fossilis and Clarias batrachus) in Bangladesh. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, 5(6).

ABSTRACT
Two popular and highly valued fish, Stinging catfish (

Heteropneustes fossilis

) and Asian catfish (

Clarias batrachus

) are considered for observing genetic enhancement. Cross breeding was performed considering wild and farmed fish through inducing agent. Five RAPD markers were used to assess genetic diversity among parents and offspring of these two catfish for evaluating genetic enhancement in F1 generation. Considering different genetic data such as banding pattern of DNA, polymorphic loci, polymorphic information content (PIC), inter individual pair wise similarity, Nei genetic similarity, genetic distance, phylogenetic relationships, allele frequency, genotype frequency, intra locus gene diversity and average gene diversity of parents and offspring of these two fish were analyzed and finally in both cases higher genetic diversity was found in F1 generation than the parents.

Keywords : Heteropneustes fossilis, Clarias batrachus, cross breeding, genetic enhancement

[Bas Pels]

Most likely, I´m not the only one who thought initially,`why would anyone want ot crossbreed these species`.

Luckely the abstract did provide an answer - when a species is farmed, it is intended to be eaten. Most hybreids grow faster then the parent species, and in case the hybrids are infertile, they will not spend any energy on breeding, which is better too.

There is another important advantage, infertile hybrids will, naturally, not become a pest when involuntarily introduced into the wild. A disadvantage, for the farmers, is however, that they will not be able to produce new fish to be raised, these will have to be bought. As the farmers are, most likely, very poor, this is a disadvantage indeed.

[bekateen]

All good points, Bas Pels. I hope you're right that these are sterile; I assumed they were fertile.

Cheers, Eric