How Genetics Work

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

Did you find this helpful or more confusing?

  • Helpful

  • more confusing


Results are only viewable after voting.

Frank Castle

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Jan 10, 2016
6,154
3,017
173
44
Pennsylvannia
This is a re-post of my input on a previous thread, if a Staff member could Pin/Sticky this thread, I'm sure it would come in useful. Plenty of space in the Pinned section here too :D

As I understand you are working with a recessive gene, along the same line of albino and leucistic. I too am trying to breed Pinks, but unless the male is heterozygous for Pink, you will not have any VISUAL Pinks. I will go ahead and break it down how genetics work, we will begin with the simplest, dubbed "Line-bred" - the term may vary but in the reptile trade it commonly refers to...
LINE-BRED EXAMPLE:
A.)an abnormally bright RED individual from a clutch of others that don't necessarily display this for the coloration
+
B.)an abnormally colored bright YELLOW individual from any clutch;
By breeding these 2 together, the offspring will be somewhere in the middle of contrast on the "color wheel spectrum", most likely the offspring will be

C.) ORANGE (RED + YELLOW = ORANGE)

DOMINANT GENE EXAMPLE:
Because I don't know Dominant/Incomplete Dominant traits in fish, I will use Ball Pythons as an example:
A.) a parent SPIDER morph being bred to a

B.) parent PINSTRIPE morph will produce mixed offspring as BOTH sets of genetics will produce VISUAL results every generation. DOMINANT genes do NOT have a Heterozygous form.

C.) Offspring will be some SPIDER, some PINSTRIPE and a percentage will also likely be the COMBINATION of BOTH VISUAL TRAITS, commony called "SPINNER" (SPIDER/PINSTRIPE).
There is always a chance for NORMAL offspring regardless of parents and the percentage of VISUAL MORPHS BASED ON THE CLUTCH SIZE will vary. The percentage SHOULD be 50% SPINNER, however the basis goes by increments of 32, unfortunately, so unless 32 eggs are laid, it can vary greatly.
In a perfect world, out of 32 eggs, 16 SHOULD be SPINNERS, 8 SHOULD be SPIDER and the other 8 SHOULD be PINSTRIPE. Since very few snakes lay anywhere NEAR 32 eggs, you just have to wait and see.

INCOMPLETE DOMINANT GENE EXAMPLE:
A.) All rules of DOMINANT apply, however added to the mix is the SUPER-GENE.

B.) PASTEL, an INCOMPLETE DOMINANT trait when bred together produce what is known as a SUPER-PASTEL. This morph is a highly colorful variant of the original PASTEL morph, but when

C.) a SUPER-PASTEL is bred to anything it makes PASTEL visible in ALL offspring, regardless of the other parent. For example a SUPER-PASTEL bred to a SPIDER will produce BUMBLEBEES. A SUPER-PASTEL bred to a normal will turn all offspring PASTEL

RECCESSIVE GENE EXAMPLE:
A.) ALBINO parent bred to ALBINO parent yields all ALBINO offspring. ALBINO is a VISUAL RECESSIVE, therefore when breeding VISUAL RECESSIVE to anything, the offspring of that clutch is 100% guaranteed to CARRY the ALLELE for ALBINISM., i.e. Heterozygous for Albino

B.) an ALBINO parent bred to a HETEROZYGOUS for ALBINO parent will also yield Albino offspring, just a lower percentage. Because a VISUAL RECESSIVE was used, the offspring that LOOK normal will still be 100% Heterozygous for Albinism.

C.) HETEROZYGOUS for ALBINO parent bred to a HETEROZYGOUS for ALBINO parent will also produce about HALF of the clutch ALBINO, HOWEVER, because there was no VISUAL RECESSIVE parent, the offspring that LOOK normal will only be what we call 66%-Het. for Albino. In other words, each offspring possess a 66% chance of passing on the ALLELE carrying the ALBINO gene.
Finally,

D.) VISUAL ALBINO parent bred to a NORMAL parent, the offspring will ALL LOOK NORMAL, however, again, as a VISUAL RECESSIVE was used, the offspring will simply ALL be 100% heterozygous for Albino.

E.) HETEROZYGOUS for ALBINO parent bred to a NORMAL parent will produce NO Albinos, and the offspring will be 50% Het. for Albino. Like the 66%'ers, these babies have a 50% chance of passing on the trait for Albinism.

In closing, My advice to you, is either get a male Pink instead or find a male that had at least ONE PARENT that was Pink if you want to produce Pinks. As of current time, your parent fish will only produce NORMALS that are 100% heterozygous for Pink, so you would need another generation to produce VISUAL RECESSIVES with those babies.



The other thing you must consider and I apologize for not including it in the genetics explanation post I made, is that you do not want to breed 2 DOMINANTS together that MAY produce a "FATAL" gene. SPIDER + SPIDER will not produce viable young and a few other morphs result in the same thing. They either don't survive as eggs or they die shortly after birth. There is no SUPER-SPIDER. Other DOMINANT traits that form a FATAL or degenerative result (like birth defects) can include BUTTER, PINSTRIPE, CINNAMON, etc. Some MAY have a Super-form like the Cinnamon (A jet black snake called "8-Balls") but that Super-form can also hatch an atrocity or abomination or just plain something you wouldn't want to see live long enough to hatch.........just to die hours later.





Questions?


NVM my opening statements, it was a conversation with someone who wanted to breed Pink Convicts. It's accurate, but doesn't regard anyone except us, really.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com