Question about my recent fry

[BatesC92]

Hey all! I recently had my first batch of babies! We couldn't be more excited here at my house. The mama fish is my 2 year old BN Albino, and the papa fish is my 3 year old BN common. They are free swimming now, but still very tiny. They are doing fantastic however! But my question is with an albino mama, and common daddy, what can I expect this fry to look like? They are super small so it's hard to really know who they are gonna look like, but most of them look like albino's right now, and a few of them look just like Commons. However there are a few that look in between both. Has anyone bred your albino and your common BN's and what was your outcome? Thanks so much everyone!!
-Christin

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The mama fish is my 2 year old BN Albino, and the papa fish is my 3 year old BN common...... But my question is with an albino mama, and common daddy, what can I expect this fry to look like? They are super small so it's hard to really know who they are gonna look like, but most of them look like albino's right now, and a few of them look just like Commons.

Because you have some albino fry, your male common BN is heterozygous for albinism. If a BN has one gene ("Allele" really) for normal colour (N) and one gene for albinism (n) it will be normal coloured ("wild type" or "type") because normal colouration is dominant.

You know your female is double recessive and homozygous (nn) because she is an albino.

There are several gene mutations that cause albinism in the Common Bristlenose, but both your male and female have the same albino gene, you know this because some of your fry are albino.

When the genes combine in your fry you have two possible options Nn (type coloured) and nn (albino). The ratio of Nn (type) to nn (albino) will be ~50:50%. (if fry get a male N gene they are heterozygous wild type coloured (Nn), if they get the male n they are homozygous albino (nn), because both female genes are recessive albino (n)).

However there are a few that look in between both.

I don't know about the genetics of the "calico" coloured variant of the common BN, but it looks like that might be involved as well.

Have a look on <"Planetcatfish:Crossbreeding different...">.

cheers Darrel

 

[BatesC92]

Thanks so much!!!

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

i get some commons throwing calicos on odd occasions....

also i have a common b/n colony for last 10 years breeding common fry and obviously future breeding stock but no new fish have been put into the tank for last 10 years and now all of a sudden are throwing some albinos and a couple calicos.....

so obviously theres something more at play happening then simple dominant and recessive genes

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

i get some commons throwing calicos on odd occasions....

also i have a common b/n colony for last 10 years breeding common fry and obviously future breeding stock but no new fish have been put into the tank for last 10 years and now all of a sudden are throwing some albinos and a couple calicos.....

so obviously theres something more at play happening then simple dominant and recessive genes

That is strange.

It could still be dominant and recessive genes, but only if one of the known albino gene mutations has occurred in one of your breeding fish.

Again I don't know, but it may require two different mutations for the fish to show calico colouring, and your fish may already have had one gene for calico colouring that wasn't expressed.

cheers Darrel

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

but for near on 10 years never threw nothing but commons over many generations within the tank with no added stock...

somewhere along the line a gene mutation must have occurred.... calico gene is very close to common gene... much stronger than albino...

but even when you breed calico over an albino you quite often get all common fry.... i researched a lot into genetics to shed some light on what fry should occur breeding which variations of common bn but basically it boils down to how gametes form at the time of spawning....

tried to formulate a hard and fast rule but in reality everytime i tried something to prove or disprove a theory something else happened... opening another can of worms along the way... so now its just a wait and see what you get and be happy with that

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
It has come up quite often on PlanetCatfish as a question, but without any definitive answer.

Have a look at <"Bristlenose plec fry colour">.

cheers Darrel

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

all very random at times then sometimes its predictable.... but generally predictably unpredictable.....