[VElderton]

Recently I have really been enjoying breeding a few varieties of BN plecos. This started accidently when a male Silver tip and 3 females surprisingly produced a number of broods in succession.

This early success motivated me to start to taking things more seriously giving each pleco group I have the opportunity to spawn.

Tank 1 & 2 > Silver Tip BN pleco group produce all ST-BN fry

Tank 3 > Calico trio, produce all Calico fry

Tank 4 > ST-BN trio, produce 1/3 non-pigment Albino fry and 2/3 regular ST-BN

Tank 5 > Dark eye L144 male x red eye Albino females, produce all pigmented fry, no albinos

I think recessive genes in male & female fish is what is happening in tank 4 ... but what is the explanation for tank 5?

 

[Transposon]

Albino is usually a recessive gene, meaning that both parents have to be albino to produce all albino offspring. Now all your fry in tank 5 is probably carrying 1 copy of wild type gene (pigmented) and one copy of albino gene (masked by wild type gene). If this guess is correct, when you cross brothers to sisters from tank 5, ideally you will get 3/4 pigmented fry and 1/4 albino fry, according to the Punnett square (assuming albinism in plecos follows single gene inheritance and complete dominance).

 

[VElderton]

Thanks for the explanation ... that makes sense. My guess is that the brother x sister crossing you suggest for Tank 5 is what occurred on Tank 4 and I did not know by looking at the parents as their outward colouration did not not suggest that and those adults were not raised as fry by me. I will be interested to see what the Albino fry from Tank 4 develop into ... full Albino with red eye or L144 variant with dark eyes but Albino body pigmentation.

It also makes perfect sense that L144 plecos with their dark eyes are expressing their wild gene, even though their body appearance is Albino in general.

Given that the 3 females in Tank 5 are all red eye Albino plecos I am wondering what would come from a cross between them and a red eye male ... I don't have one of them ... but my sister has a nice male and I will check his eyes next time we visit to see if I can borrow him on breeding loan.

I am also going to cross the male from Tank 4 with females in Tank 5. I know he is carrying Albino genes as evident by his last spawning. My guess is that those offspring could be either 1/2 - 3/4 Albino depending on level of pigment genes the male and females are carrying.

I need to set up a Tank 6 to investigate a bit, I now have enough breeding plecos to check into this a bit more fully and map out the genetics of various breeding groups.

Thanks ... by the way what is the L# for full Albino - with pink eye plecos? I found L144 referenced in a number of places but no reference for the full red eye variant #

I have been dabbling with Angel Fish genetic variants and this just as interesting.

 

[Transposon]

That's exciting! Can't wait to see what your albino fry from Tank 4 grow up to, and the outcome of your future crosses!