Breeding Albino Krib with regular Krib

[drudnick]

I had recently purchased a really nice female Krib, but needed an equally nice male to hopefully pair up with her. I found a really nice albino male, which was first I had seen, as usualy its the females I see as albinos for sale. Anyways, does sex of the albino play any part in what type of babies you get is bred, or does it not matter whether its male or female.

Dave

 

[aquaticclarity]

The sex of the fish doesn't effect if the offspring will be albino or regularly colored. As I learned from Ted this past friday, the albino trait in P. pulcher is dominant over the regular form. This means that even if the you have one albino parent fish it is possible to end up with 75% of the offspring being albino. If the albino trait was recessive, which is the norm in most animals, at best you would only get 50% albino fry and possibly as few as 25%.

 

[tjudy]

If the albino male is homozygous for albino (pretty much totally white with a little yellow in the fisn and some blue sheen), you will get 100% albino fry, but they will all be the very colorful heterzygous albino. This is the best cross for albino kribs, in my opinion. If the male you have has a lot of color besides white, then he is probably a heterozygous albino, and you will be a 50/50 ratio. Not a bad way to either, because you will have a variety and the albinos will be the colorful heterozygous fish. If you get a 50/50 mix, pull the wild type from from the parents after a week and raise them separately. Let the parents care for the albino fry. As with most fish the albino fry will be less hardy and will get outcompeted by the wildtype fry.

 

[aquaticclarity]

Thanks for correcting my genitics screw-up!:redface: I'll get out the punnett square next time.

Jeff

 

[drudnick]

My male Albino has alot of orange on his caudal fin, and some on his dorsal. He also has a deep red stripe on the top of his dorsal fin. Other than that he is all white. Very pretty fish, I am working on getting a link for his pic, I will then post here, so you can see the pair I am hoping to breed. I removed the original male I had when I got the female, and she went from hiding and beig chased non stop to swimming freely, and really enjoying the albinos company.

 

[drudnick]

Here is a pic of the pair.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f124/chillininri/Picture010.jpg

 

[tjudy]

Tough to say for sure if that male heterozygous or not. The offspring will let you know for sure.

 

[aquaticclarity]

So if the albino trait is dominant in P. pulcher does that mean that the original breeding stock came from wild albino fish, as opposed to being the percentage result of thousands of farm spawned/raised fish? It would mean that there must always be at least one albino fish present in the wild to carry on the trait! At least until someone caught that/those fish and established albino kribs in the hobby.

Jeff

 

[tjudy]

I suspect that the gene for albinism is a captive strain phenomenon. Albinism creates a whole host of health issue for organisms in the wild. Occasionally we see albino animals as adults, but not very often. The problem that is hard to determine is how the gene could exist in the wild at all if it takes an albino fish to make an albino fish. Are there albino kribs in the wild? I do not know, but the odds are against them surviving long enough to reproduce.