Albino Bristlenose producing normals

[Kendall’s Aquarium]

My albino pair of Bristlenose do not produce albino offspring, instead producing very light colored “normals” anyone else experience this as well?

[gardenman]

Pleco genetics is interesting. I've had Super Reds for about four years now. In December, my latest spawn produced about 40% albinos. Their parents and grandparents were only producing Super Reds, so I don't know where the albino gene popped up from, but it's there. I was more than a little surprised to see it pop up. I have no clue what the albinos will produce when/if they spawn down the road. It could be Super Reds. It could be albinos. It could be normals. God only knows what will come out.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

25-40% makes sense @gardenman in terms of producing offspring that come from genes that express one of the other color morphs. It's interesting that it took that many generations to express. Perhaps you may have needed to more aggressively cull or it was just inevitable as mother nature always wants to return to where it all begins. 

I have a colony of female super red calicos x 5, they have 2 males - 1 regular LF and 1 albino BE LF BN. They produce almost exact clones of the fathers and mothers but occasionally I get a super red and I have found it more with the fry from the mothers and the 1 albino LF bn. Of all the offspring they are the weakest in terms of fry survival so I have a new colony of 12 coming that are all LF calico super reds and it will be fun to see what they produce. In terms of the fry I have scattered around the house in various tanks it has been fun to watch them grow out. The fry these groups will produce will be even more interesting. 

I also have some F2 Rio Tocantin's that are growing out and of the ten 4 have really striking patterns and the others so far show more of a darker pattern. It will be interesting to play with this group and see if I can get the more patterned group to breed out and see if I can get a vibrant pattern instead of the more muddy look that their siblings have. I don't think I could ever get to Wabenmuster level but it would be fun to try. Those, L181-183, Medusa's and really any Ancistrus is exciting to me. 

[Odd Duck]

I have read (no personal experience) that there are 2 different strains of albino BN’s and they are on different alleles which essentially cancel each other out in the F1 offspring.  So each parent has a completely different genetic site for their albinism.  When crossbred, their normal genes at the “other” albinism site “covers” the albinism in the offspring and makes them produce babies that are het for albinism of 2 different types.  Crossing one of these F1 babies to either type of albino will give you 50% albinos and 50% phenotypic normals that are roughly 50% het to one or the other albino genes depending on the albino parent in the cross.

If AA is one allele location for albinism with aa being one albino parent and BB at a completely different loci with bb being the other parent albino, you likely had aaBB for one parent and bbAA for the other parent.

So crosses get you AaBb in all the offspring which are phenotypically normal receiving one normal gene at each loci from each parent.

Crossing to another albino (we’ll just pick the aa allele to start) gets you half aaBB and half AaBB babies - so half albino and half look “normal”.  If the other parent happens to be albino from the other albino allele, you would get half AABb and half AAbb babies with the same split phenotypically (by looks).  Without having genetic studies that don’t even exist yet, you would have no way to know if you have aa or bb albinos.

Theoretically, you should be able to develop a strain that is aabb and would always produce albinos crossed with albinos of either strain, but with double albinism genes, they might be very weak or it could even be a lethal gene combo.  Or they might be just fine.  Depends on whether one or both albinism genes are linked to other genetic flaws and how serious those flaws might be.

[Torrey]

On 6/23/2022 at 9:06 PM, Kendall’s Aquarium said:

My albino pair of Bristlenose do not produce albino offspring, instead producing very light colored “normals” anyone else experience this as well?

I think something similar happened... I would need to read back through over a years worth of posts in another group... essentially what Odd Duck said above. Many of the offspring made it to our local fish club auction.

[Kendall’s Aquarium]

Interesting. Thank you