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I believe it was 2018, maybe earlier, I got a hold of some Super Reds off of Ebay. They had black leakage on the fins and tail which gave me the idea of creating a red albino Bristlenose Ancistrus. I had originally envisioned a pure red fish similar to that of a red guppy. I had a long fin male albino, that showed spotting and patterning on the tail and fins that were whiter in color and I had a red female that I used to start the project. A few generations down the road, a fish popped up, that was different that all the others, and I decided to grow out. It turned out to be the founding male. One of his long fin daughters was mated to a red male that produced the female that spawned the batch of fry at the top. The other long fin female was mated to the long fin male above. I had intentionally kept a few specimens from earlier generations to preserve genetic diversity. The Red Leopard at the top is the result of the founding male and his short fin daughter. I now have enough specimens that close inbreeding is no longer necessary.

The male pictured below I had kept around for a few years and finally decided to use him last year. You might be able to see, in this picture, that his body color is kind of pink. He caries two copies of the gene for red coloration but he also caries a gene that inhibits the expression of that gene, thus the pink color. The fry below are from him and the daughter of the founding specimen of the Red leopard breed. Out of over 100 offspring, only three of them were true Red Leopards. Two short fin and one long fin. Two of them I have pictured below.

I have been off the forum for a while and thought that you all might like to see some of the results of some of the breeding that I had mentioned on an earlier thread. The picture below with Dad and children was taken in early August of 2022. A few of the resulting offspring are pictured below. Unfortunately, my good camera broke down so I had to use my camcorder to take those pictures below so the color isn't quite right.

By this picture, it looks to be about an inch and a half long. If it is a male, it wont be showing bristles until well over two inches.

It's not from me, because of the age, but it looks curiously like some of the fish I let go to a local pet shop in my area.

Are you in the Puget sound area of Washington State?

This is what a Tequila sunset looks like. The colors are right but the patterning is off.

What does a Tequila sunrise look like?

These are some fish from the first spawn. I am sorry about the quality of these pictures but the camera has a difficult time focusing on such a small object. Anyway, the purpose of posting these pictures is to show how well some of these are showing spots.

@Minanora, the Bristlenose in the original post was from a spawn from mid June of last year. He has been very busy this year and is currently in a cave with his second batch of fry from the female that I will attach here. Quite a few of the offspring, from the first spawn, are showing good spotting. Now it is just a matter of time to see how well they color up.

I think so to. He has a bunch of siblings that are about a year younger that are looking pretty good.

Not yet. This is a new variety. I am growing some out to select from for breeders for next year. I also have a clutch of eggs from a spawn on Tuesday so, at some point, I will have to figure a way to disperse the extras into the hobby.

Meet Mom and Dad.

Size varies quite a bit but his parents are a little over 4 inches long and 1 inch wide at two and a half years.

That was a good suggestion but I was thinking more like Red Leopard Bristlenose.n but I was thinking more like Red Leopard Bristlenose.

Is my strain of Bristlenose worthy of a name?