Originally posted by RTR
Sorry, should have specified - the shop is Rick's Fish and Pet Supply in Frederick MD. 301-694-9664. They have no web or email presence.
Since the first positive breeding reports of BPs on the web some time back, my guess has been that these are not true hybids, unless within their own near kin. I would guess the likely source is the same sort of mutation as the ballon molly not that long ago, or the short-bodied goldfish.
Amelanistic coloring and long finned varieties are non-survival traits for most fish in the wild, but they are not hard to sustain in captivity. Some color forms are non-survival even in captivity and need to be heterozygotes to make it, but they are still around from breeders.
Thanks I think I will contact this shop just for jollies and ask them even though it is long distance for me. Though I find quite often that lfs workers have no clue as to what they are talking about and sometimes will lie if they think they will get a sale out of it. I have been searching the web and have found not one single example from a reputable verifiable source affirming fertile male blood parrots. I have seen a couple of claims in forums like this which I can retrieve no response from when I ask for verification. The problem with such mutations as ballon mollies or short bodied goldfish when compared to BPs is that breeders can readily inline breed those fish to select for those traits and select out undesirable traits. I am not sure what your point is regarding "non-survival traits" for fish in the wild, sorry, none of these traits selected through inline breeding for ornimentation cause infertility of any kind in the progeny.
Also the definition of species in taxonomy is quite fluid. Basically in the animal kingdom a species is a subgroup of a Genus which will not mate with other subgroups naturally in the wild. Some groups of animals we define as species in nature can and will mate in captivity and produce fertile offspring. Probably these groups shouldn't be regarded as separate species but rather as subspecies. I had a pair of lovebirds I had hoped to mate. For years the female laid unfertilized eggs even though the two often did the dance of love. Come to find out my male, a powder blue masked, was a hybrid between two distinct species of lovebirds from different areas of africa. Guess what? He was shootin' blanks!