Selective Breeding for New Colorations - What have you Worked on?

[Fish Folk]

First off:   M E R R Y    C H R I S T M A S !                (or as my little brother says, "MERRY GRIMMACE!") 

So . . . not an advanced breeder (yet) . . . but enjoyed a talk Greg Sage gave on selective breeding at our Fish Club last year (pre-COVID). He has some really cool fish, and lots of experience to draw from. Check out his work over at selectaquatics.com 

We have enjoyed breeding Rams for awhile, and ended up crossing a Gold Ram with an Electric Blue. The fry came out mixed, with either blue dominant and gold recessive, or gold dominant and blue recessive -- but the fry all articulated aspects of both, once they matured. If I understand right (and from Greg Sage's talk) they were heterozygous.  

But eventually, we crossed the fry -- blue with blue, and gold with gold. And a little bit of "magic" sparked. 

Here was what one of the _females_ looked like from the blue / blue heterozygous crossing:

And here is what the gold / gold rams looked like (note the blue-flame highlights on a few of the males):

 

I know that Tom (aka the coral bandit / the ram bandit) has been trying to selectively breed towards a line of red rams. I'm thinking that Rams are a bit more friendly to selective breeding for color strains than is commonly thought. The Black / Dark Night Rams . . . and the Blue Frost coloration are just two that have been worked on in recent years.

Anyway, I'm curious what colorations anyone here has been working on with different species of fish. 

[wendypizza]

I haven't gotten started yet, but one day I would like to attempt to get the red cherry shrimp out of the wild types, as the red ones are illegal to import, but wild types are sold as feeders (some people have them, but you can't buy/sell). After my goldfish bred earlier this year I was seriously considering breeding for a longer bodied version of fancies, so they'll have an easier time swimming, but I don't think there's a big market for that 😞 maybe as a side project in 2021.

[Fish Folk]

1 hour ago, wendypizza said:

the red ones are illegal to import

Oh wow! That’s interesting. Where are you at? 

[WhitecloudDynasty]

I work with mainly white cloud and rainbow shiner, rosy barb on the side. Mainly Coldwater fish.

I would love to work with comet goldfish if I had the water space, but I dont.....yet 😆 

[Fish Folk]

1 hour ago, WhitecloudDynasty said:

I work with mainly white cloud and rainbow shiner, rosy barb on the side. Mainly Coldwater fish.

I would love to work with comet goldfish if I had the water space, but I dont.....yet 😆 

We follow your YouTube channel! You're doing great work. A guy in our fish club (PVAS) recommended your work.

We actually bought some golden white clouds because of you, and definitely want to someday buy a school of rainbow shiners. 

[AdamTill]

I didn’t get to work with them long before I had to euthanize them all due to disease, but one of my life goals is to get back to breeding blue egg Phoenix’s. Goal is a gentle back curve, good tail set, proper tail shape and none of the orange markings showing through. The blue should be consistent in a perfect fish.

Then I’d love to keep the BEP conformation and go wild with colour variations.

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by AdamTill

[Fish Folk]

5 minutes ago, AdamTill said:

one of my life goals is to get back to breeding blue egg Phoenix’s

Awesome! You're a serious breeder. Thanks for sharing! 

[AdamTill]

54 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:

Awesome! You're a serious breeder. Thanks for sharing! 

Aww thanks, but I’ve just had the chance to learn from them. Only keeping a single tank right now.

[Brandy]

@Fish Folk I'm just playing with mutt guppies right now, and upgrading a red cherry shrimp colony, but your rams are so awesome I am determined to pull the eggs next time I get some!

[Fish Folk]

6 minutes ago, Brandy said:

 

@Fish Folk I'm just playing with mutt guppies right now, and upgrading a red cherry shrimp colony, but your rams are so awesome I am determined to pull the eggs next time I get some!

 

Thanks! We love mutt guppy breeding too. The Rams just caught us off guard. Here’s the sister & brother from that batch. 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Fish Folk