What Causes BN Traits?

[Catfish-ologist]

Hello all,
I have really been attracted to Plecos recently and I had a few questions regarding BN strains.
First off what causes the color in the different strains
I know a few
Albino- This ones obvious
Yellow- Xanthic
White- Leucistic
But there are a few I am unsure
"Calico"- Piebald???
Green- ???
Red- ???
Lemondrop- (Isn't this just a regular BN)??
Next what is the difference between a yellow one with blue eyes vs yellow with black eyes (L144 vs False L144)?

Also
What causes the long-fin gene? I am a bit curious because this is quite common in the bobby in various fish: Danios, corydoras, tetras, chiclids, and even BN's. Could selectively breeding this out work in other species too and is there a way to promote this?

Lastly what is dominant Vs. recessive All the color morphs, fin lengths eye colors etc.
Maybe others have even more questions they can add on.
I'm excited to see where this will go.
Thanks,
-- Sean

[bekateen]

Hi Sean,

As far as I know, most of the genetics of common bristlenoses and their captive-bred variants are not worked out. There are some old posts on the subject of albinos, such as this: viewtopic.php?t=41058.

A quick clarification, as far as I know, real L144 no longer exists. I think the story here about L144 (https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/sp ... es_id=2487) was that it was a single individual imported. There obviously continue to be black-eyed albino (yellow) Ancistrus in the hobby, but it's my guess that these possess a mutation independently developed and not linked genetically back to the original black-eyed wild-caught individual. Their color pattern (black eyes, yellow body) might be the same, but mutation that created the color pattern is likely completely different (maybe same gene, but perhaps different nucleotide mutation).

Thus, the question about blue-eyed vs. black-eyed Ancistrus is more a generic question about which genes control eye color, rather than how is L144 different from sp(4).

Cheers, Eric