Albino offspring not albino?

[azza]

Gidday, I have 3 albino red zebras and their offspring are always kinda a dark grey with a blue tint (im a bit colour blind) with faint yellow edges on their fins. Why is this? Ive only kept 1 so far now she is holding, I think she mated with her dad, he was giving her a hard time a few days ago.

My question is, do albinos not produce albinos?

[mcloughlin2]

The normal albino gene is recessive so when an albino is bred to an albino you should get 100% albino fish.

You can see this by using a punnet square (aa=albino fish) -

......a a

a aa aa

a aa aa

My knowledge of genetics doesn't extend much further, but it could be possible that you have another albino gene. Just to be sure are they definately not albino? (ie no red eyes?) And there is no way that the females could be breeding with another male fish in the tank?

Edited June 26, 2010 by mcloughlin2

[pseudotrop]

Albinos do produce albinos. But sometimes they don't.

It's also possible they are not 'true' albinos as mcloughlin2 has mentioned.

They may just have a defect in the gene responsible for colour production rather than having two of the usual recessive alleles associated with albinism.

One of the parents maybe 'leucistic', which is a defect in colouration during development that can be over the whole body or only in patches.

To further complicate things, fish have things called chromatophores - which still produce certain colours even if the fish has inherited two recessive albino genes.

Edited June 26, 2010 by pseudotrop

[intern1]

Simple recessive and dominance works as mcoughlin2 stated but the problem is genetics isn't as simple as this, Mendel who first found the dominant and recessive was using peas and animals such as fish would have a greater detail genetic chain therefore - it could be that these aren't pure albinos - this may mean that on there gene they have been bread or through mutation a particular gene has switched on another gene to cause the change in color which is more dominant than the albino coloration that is normally seen. - This is probably a very watered down explanation of what has occurred. Going into much more detail will be alot complicated and confusing

john

[azza]

Thanks for the replys guys.

[azza]

The normal albino gene is recessive so when an albino is bred to an albino you should get 100% albino fish.

You can see this by using a punnet square (aa=albino fish) -

......a a

a aa aa

a aa aa

My knowledge of genetics doesn't extend much further, but it could be possible that you have another albino gene. Just to be sure are they definately not albino? (ie no red eyes?) And there is no way that the females could be breeding with another male fish in the tank?

They have pink eyes, and im positive the albino male is the father, I was watching them mate again this afternoon, a water change always brings it on.