My goal is to have a few different colorstrain of Albino sword to multiply. I love the albino sword because they are beautiful and they are a little less common variant of the usual swordtails.
I have severalwild forms of xiphophorus in my aquariums including X.mayae, X.kallmani, x.helleri Yucatan ..
Well, since both strains are albino, any crosses will also be albino. This limits the possibilities. Albino is a recessive, which means that they are homozygous by default.
Red Albino can be either homozygous or heterozygous for Red. So, crossing with the another strain will produce either 100% Red, or 50% Red. This will tell you the genotype of the strain, valuable information.
The Albino Pineapple (also known as "Lemon") is homozygous for both albino and Gold - both recessives. In addition, he carries the Red Saddle gene, with modifiers. That is what makes the strain.
Knowing how this will play out with other strains is a matter of chance, as Red Saddle is also a dominant, but the degree varies according to the modifiers. If crossed with a strain that lacks the appropriate modifiers, you will get rather poor saddle markings.
Even more fun is the fact that many Red strains have Red Saddle masked by the overall Red, and it isn't seen until you outcross and get non-red fish.
I'd get a couple of non-albino varieties to play with in addition to the two that you currently have, as the likelihood is that you won't get much other than what you already have. Only major difference would be a bunch of heterozygous individuals, rather than true breeding homozygous genes. At least with some other lines, you might get something worth experimenting.
An easy one is Tuxedo, two generations you can get Albino and Tuxedo combined, making the Red Coral.
Are you a member of the ALA? If you are you should write some articles (if you already haven't) for the Livebearers Bulletin, you seem to have a lot of knowledge and we need articles.
Okay, then I can not get as much of my second color variations of my albino swordtails. I will try to cross one of them Red albino with any other color variant and see if I get 100% red and 50%.
I must look further for other albino variants, they are difficult to obtain in Sweden, I had pure luck to got these albinos. Greetings Johan Thank you very much for your replies to my questions.
Albino is a single gene trait...as mentioned it is recessive, so your albinos are homozygous recessive.
It seems like you are looking to generate some variability to experiment with and develop new strains. The best way for you to do this is cross one of your albino fish to a wild type (normal color--read "non albino") individual....any strain will do...and as mentioned, maybe a fish of unknown genotype will give you some interesting results. your F1 will all be normal colored...but heterozygous for the albino trait....so....then you can either:
Back cross your F1 to the albino line you used in the first place...this would generate a BC1 population--you will get around 50% albino offspring in the BC1.
Generate an F2, simply breed brother to sister from the F1, you will get 25% homozygous wild type, 50% heterozygous albino, and 25% albino. Choose albino offspring and go from there in strain development.
Or, you could cross the F1 from a cross with one of your albino strains to the other albino strain you have. This situation will generate the most variability, giving you many more combinations of albino with other traits. You would get the same results as the BC...50% wild type (but heterozygous for the albino allele) and 50% albino.
Percentages may not be exact in each and every drop, but would represent the results of an infinite number or progeny from each situation.
Trying to cross with the other species you mentioned...which would be a wide cross...would probably generate some very interesting results since those species no doubt carry genes and alleles not present in the domestic "helleri" populations. If you go that route....DO NOT mix them up with your true species, and do not distribute them as such. It is important to keep the species populations safe from contamination with genetic info from domesticated lines....
Above all else...keep records, and hopefully pictures of your parents as well as representative offspring in each generation...that is the only way you will be able to learn about inheritance of traits you are studying in your breeding program.
I have a little different wildtypes of swordtails including X.kallmani, X.helleri (Yucatan), X.mayae to cross with my albinos. perhaps they generate a bit of variations to my strain. Can I cross with others colorforms of swordtails, like KOI swords?..
I am very careful to not mix my wild forms with each other and will do as you wrote above, keeping an inventory of images. I´m a member and webmaster in SUF (Swedish Livebearer Association), it´s a community on internet free for all in sweden to join and become a member. We taking care of various wild forms and culture forms of livebearers so they don´t disappears.
I know that this project will last for a few years and many tanks are needed. I have 14 pieces 100liters aquariums empty.
I don't believe that Johan's question was really answered, instead he was given a lesson in genetics! While a good knowledge and understanding of gentics is valuable, you don't have to be a genetics expert to develop strains of Fancy Xiphophorus (Swordtails & Platies).
Johan, You can cross other color strains and even wild Xiphophorus species with the Albino Swordtail strains which you have. In simple terms- The offspring from these crosses will yield no Albino specimens in the first cross (F1) unless Albino is present in the fish being bred into your Albinos. A small percentage of Albinos will be present in the second generation (F2) when these non-Albino F1's are bred brother/ sister or back to Albino. What your results (color-wise) are depends on what you cross. You can learn by doing it.
Hello, I got my question maybe not answered to 100% but I did get little information to think about. I know that I will not get albino in first generation (F1) but I will be able to get albino in the second generation (F2).
I want to know how to cross mine albino swordtails strains to others color strains to produce different colors strains such as gold, white and with more different body pattern lika bleeding heart.. I have Red albino swords and pineapple (lemon) albino swords.
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