ALBINO BRISTLENOSE SPAWN

[RIFTLAKE]

Hello I,ll try to keep this short. Years ago I had a albino and a normal bristlenose spawn. I read were the offspring were supposed to be sterile. I sold most to a local petshop but kept 20 or so in my outside pond year round (Live in the Fl.Keys). Last month I set up a 90 gal tank and pulled some starter fish from the pond. I put two male and two females in the tank. Within a week a male carved out a cave under a rock and was obviously guarding a nest. Another week went by and i now have 150 albino babys and about fifty regular looking bristlenose babys cruising the tank-what a pleasent surprise! But the question how could these sterile fish spawn????? Thanks Scott
[Mod edit: Uncaptalize the post. --Mats]

[MatsP]

Simple answer is that they are not sterile. The albino form is the same species as the non-albino form, just "with" and "without" the genetic defect that disables the colour production in the fish. It's highly likely that the fish have been spawning in your pond too, but perhaps the chances of survival is much smaller [depends on what else is in the pond] and the albino variety would be much easier for any predator to see.

More info:

Ancistrus sp(3)

And please, next time, try to avoid writing all in capitals, in Internet culture it means that you are shouting, and I much prefer to hold a normal conversation than a shouting conversation.

--
Mats

[tzwms]

Not sure who or where you heard that an albino and normal BN cross would result in sterile young, but that is incorrect as indicated by your babies.

[RIFTLAKE]

there are one or two things i failed to mention, of interest. both parents are normal phase. none of the original spawn were albino. they never spawned in the pond and 3/4 of the new spawn are albino,scott

[MatsP]

That's perfectly normal: The original spawn had one albino and one non-albino parent. In genetics you have dominant and recessive genes [blue-eyes in humans for example], where you only need the dominant one for that trait to show, whilst a recessive gene will show up ONLY if both parents have that gene. A recessive gene is written with regular letters (a, b, c), dominant in "capitals" (A, B, C).

If we call the albino gene a and the normal gene A, then your original parents have must have aa and AA [since you didn't get any albinos in the initial spawning]. The next pair is aA + aA, which gives:
aa, aA, Aa, AA in equal mix. That should really give you 75% browns with 25% albinos - I can't quite explain why you get a different set - perhaps there is something else up with the brown ones.

--
Mats

[Pinky the Pleco]

Hello,
I'm a newby to this forum, but did not see an answer to my situation. I have an albino male and albino female bristlenose who ignored each other for many, many months. Just recently, the male was guarding a clutch. To my surprise, the spawn are all regular Bn bristlenose. I am very confused. I thought albino was a recessive color. So the genetics should be aa (my male albino) x aa (my female albino), which should cause only aa (albino) offspring. How am I getting all Bn offspring?
Pinky the Pleco

[bekateen]

Hi Pinky the Pleco,

First, welcome to PlanetCatfish!

The answer to your question may be this: It is believed that there are two different genetic mutations which are responsible for causing albinism in BN plecos. Both are recessive and operate under the rules you described. The problem can occur if your two parents don't have the same mutation. So while each parent is homozygous recessive for their own gene causing albinism, they are most likely normal (wild-type/brown) for the other albinism gene. So your babies all end up being heterozygotes for each of the albinism genes and therefore neither of the albinism mutations gets expressed and the kids come out all brown.

If you want to test this theory, let your kids grow up and mate with one of their parents. You should get 50%-50% brown and albino. Or let your babies grow up and mate with each other and you should get 25% albino.

Cheers, Eric

[Pinky the Pleco]

Hi Eric,
Thank you for your reply. Two different forms of albinism makes sense. There are several types of human albinism too. I enjoy my albino's and was hoping for more. I guess the only thing I can do would be to buy another albino baby.
Laura AKA Pinky the Pleco

[bekateen]

Good luck Laura!