Cacatuoides,Selective breeding.

[Microman]

I have bred tank raised Cacatuoides on many occasions and the broods are always a mix of Double Red,Triple Red and Orange Flash varieties.Is this always the case or can the broodstock be selected to produce the whole brood as one strain,say Orange Flash?
If this is possible how is it achieved?
I have a good mix of broodstock but most are related to one another.Will I need unrelated broodstock?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark.

 

[fishgeek]

there is a good artile on the genetics of y/g of and tr colour strains of cacatoides on the main sitehttp://www.apistogramma.com/cms/Articles/General_Dwarf_Cichlid_Articles/The_Yellow_Gold_Cockatoo_by_Mike_Yamamoto/

if that doesn't work, im not so good at this then from the forum main page there is a quick link button, top right of header that goes to the site

the articles on left and mike yamamoto's article should be under general husbandry

 

[depthc]

Through selective breeding you can bring out specific traits and varieties. But your breeding efforts wont result in 100% OF, YG, or TR. They are mixed and produce fish that either show recessive traits and or dominate.

Read up on Mike Y's article, it does a good job to show ratios of dominate and recessive genes and how that all plays out. It helped me better understand the genetics part of it, although it would of helped if i payed attention in Biology since all that common alleles, genes, ect was covered in the class.

It would be nice to read up on other specific apisto gene articles but i havent been able to find any through google searches.

Also it is a great idea to introduce new genes through wild cacatuoides or f1's to keep the gene pool of your fish healthy. If you keep letting you cacatuoides inbreed youll begin to see more deformations and abnormalities in your fish just as any other animal. Also doing so will keep impurities out of your stock of cacatuoides. Good luck

Andrew

 

[apistobob]

I do not agree with the people that are saying you cannot "fix" a strain. For many years I maintained a 100% stock of Orange Flash that I developed by selectively breeding our the double red. It took about 5 generations to get to 100% but once I did I never had anything but OF for many more generations. I always believed that the genes for OF must be recessive.

I have subsequently added back in fresh genes from two different Double Red strains but am now in the process of getting back to a 100% OF (I am now at about 80%) and am also trying to get the same stock to a seperate 100% DR. However, I am finding it much more difficult to eliminate the OF coming out of this stock.

Bob