albino bristle nose + albino bristle nose = all wild type?!

[CT_]

A buddy of mine has some very frisky albino bristle nose plecos.  they've had at least 3 clutches of eggs.  every baby so far has wild type coloration.  I was under the impression that albinism is a recessive trait.  Is it different for plecos?  I'm curious whats going on.

[gardenman]

Genetics in plecos are interesting. My young Super Reds are throwing lots of albinos (20%-40% is my best guess) now after never having an albino before. Their parents, grandparents and great grandparents were all Super Reds, so where does the sudden influx of albinos come from? Danged if I know. It's pretty neat though. No throwbacks to a wild coloration though. They're either Super Reds or albinos. 

Edited March 1, 2022 by gardenman

[Odd Duck]

I’ve done some reading on this very subject and found some interesting tidbits.  Apparently while albinism is recessive, there are thought to be at least 2 different strains of albinism in bristlenose plecos.  When they are crossed, they cancel each other out because one strain has the normal gene for the other’s albinism loci and vice versa.  It’s a bit like breeding apples to oranges in a way.  But all the F1’s will be heterozygous for BOTH strains of albinism.  They could be crossed with albinos of either variety and produce roughly 50% albino offspring.  It’s not known for certain if there are only 2 strains, but that’s the leading theory that I found.

 

[lefty o]

albinos in any animal can throw quite a few color variations. 2 albino squirrels can make a black squirrel. its all about recessive gene's.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

He’ll need to outcross to a different albino male and female to see if he can break the chain. I’ve had good success with lemons and albino longfins. I wish your buddy success @CT_iimagine he’s pretty flummoxed. 

[CT_]

I was far more flummoxed than he was.  The fact that he even happened to have two BN plecos was an accident and the fact that they were M/F and found a place to mate in that tank was also an accident.  He's been trading the babies at the LFS 🙂

 

[the other Irene]

I have a similar issue.  I had a male super red BN pleco breed with a yellow female w/ red eyes- they call that pineapple BN at my LFS.  Most of my fry are dark-as well.  There are a few lighter ones.. I will grow out to see what I get.  I am waiting for my female super red BN to age to 1.5 yrs before I breed the dad to her to see what I get then.

 

Any ideas on why I got so many dark one?

[gardenman]

On 3/10/2022 at 8:49 PM, the other Irene said:

I have a similar issue.  I had a male super red BN pleco breed with a yellow female w/ red eyes- they call that pineapple BN at my LFS.  Most of my fry are dark-as well.  There are a few lighter ones.. I will grow out to see what I get.  I am waiting for my female super red BN to age to 1.5 yrs before I breed the dad to her to see what I get then.

 

Any ideas on why I got so many dark one?

My pure Super Reds will sometimes start out a bit darker then lighten as they mature, so give them some time and see what happens. Pleco genetics are a bit of a surprise sometimes. you're never quite sure what will come out of a pairing. 

[CanadaAmanda]

Very interesting reading this thread! 

I have two albino BN's that have mated and thrown approximately 50/50 brown and albino babies.  I've thought about it and believe it's due to the parents having different genes coding for their albinism, and on the mother's side those genes on the X chromosome where they are unmatched by the Y chromosome (X chromosomes have more genes), leading to expression of a recessive gene coming from just the mother (eg. in humans this is seen with male pattern baldness and ocular albinism).  This is called X-linked recessive inheritance. 

 

Anyway, thought someone else might find this interesting so wanted to add to the thread. 🙂
 

ETA: if my theory is correct, all the albino babies will be males.

Edited January 23, 2023 by CanadaAmanda

[GoDawgsGo]

I bought an albino bristlenose and brown bristlenose close to 10 years. I had a 50g that is now a 75g. They started breeding almost immediately.

As far as colorations I have seen some interesting things. Most have come out dark, some don't have the bristles on their nose, I've seen some with some orangish stripes and crazy patterns. I have two Marineland Emperor HOB filters so I have to be careful when I clean that out as the babies have a tendency to end up in there. I've got no adult albinos left, my last one just died a couple of months ago actually so I was a bit sad. So I'm not geneticist but the brown seems to be dominant.  That being said, they hadn't bred in a while until recently and I've got quite a few babies in the tank right now and at least 4-5 are albino so I'm happy about that. I used to have an upside down catfish that I'm pretty sure ate the babies but it passed away a few months ago after being in my tank 8-10 years so my current babies seem to be all surviving and growing. I think they're about 2 months old now.

I try to give them away as much as possible. If anyone is on the southside of Atlanta I'd be happy to get rid of some. I probably have 20-25 adults in my tank right now.