Should i put them together?

[graceless]

Hey guys,

I finally got some kribs - my way of justifying a planted tank.

I wanted a pair of normal and a pair of albino, but ended up with 2 X female albinos, 1 X male albino, and a male and female normal.

I am in 2 minds about this.

Should i keep them together and allow the albinos and the non albinos to breed together in order to get hetrozygous progeny, which i can then use to breed 50-50 albinos and non-albinos in the F2?

or should i just keep the albinos with the albinos, and the non-albinos with the non-albinos?

Input on this would be good. This will be my little line breeding/genetics project.

Cheers

grace

p.s. i'm pretty on top of genetics (thanks to 4 years of forensic training), so i am not interested in what the genetic probabilities, etc will be. More what will be better for the quality of fish, and info on how other people have approached it.

[fiona]

As they are the same species and it's just a pigmentation variation, I would be spreading the genetics and looking for quality and vigour.

Gottenny pics? I'd like to see.

BTW how'd the little lionhead mother go? We have some eggs ATM and dad is looking after them.

[graceless]

I'll take some photos tonight.

They are albinos of the same species. true albinos, with red eyes!

i was thinking if they breed (an albino and a non-albino) then all the kids are gonna be carriers of the albino gene. then, cross the best of the kids, and i should get 50 - 50 albino and non-albino. from that point, i can go through the same process again, and start getting some really strong albinos.

the mum did well, till i took her eggs away. i think she's got another batch already. god she's so cute (3cm) but WAY too young! LOL!

Grace

[Dark Morelia]

I'd say go with albino to non-albino, for the reason you already stated, you'll end up with stronger albinos.

Unless you just want to produce lots of Albinos, then get an Albino male.

If you're gonna have a breeding program going, then in time you'll be producing a lot of Albinos, and they will benefit from the injection of new blood into the gene pool early on in the program.

I have discovered, after a couple of years of breeding Cockatiels, that genetics dont always work like the books say it will. So don't be suprised if it doesnt always go according to plan.

At least when you sort out the fry from those kribs you'll only hafta worry about the one mutation in them, not like some of my 'tiels, which are multi-mutation to start off with, then 2 or 3 splits as well. gets rather confusing.

Are they TRUE albinos with no pigment on them anywhere ?

So often you see these things called albinos, yet they still have faint markings on them.

If they're true albino i'd like to see them too

Cheers,

Andy

[graceless]

I am told they are "true albinos".

there is some pigment, only in their tail. and red eyes.

damnit! i'm at work now - if i was home then it would be pictures galore! i finish at 3, so maybe photos by 6?

cheers

Grace

[anchar]

Hi Grace,

I keep both together, hoping to strengthen the group. However my "normal" pair have teamed up and push the albinos around.

merjo

[graceless]

Hey Andrea,

How long have you had them together? Is anyone breeding in the tank? i am not entirely sure that they would even "cross pair", but i'm assuming due to thier "need to breed" nature any thing is possible really!

should i remove the non-albino female so that i have 2 albino females and one albino and one non-albino male?

can't i just give them a heap of grog, turn on some doof-doof music and hope they get this false sense of euphoria and that everyone is beautiful! lol.

Grace