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Bristlenose Pleco Breeding Question

1501 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  ghyti
So I was at my local pet store the other day and they had some really cool looking bristlenose plecos. Problem is they are babies (about an inch long to longer for sure), they almost look like 182's or 183's they are black (really dark brown?) they have small white dots on them and have a white band right along the back of their caudal fin (tail fin). Now I know they are young, so likely they will still change in coloration slightly??? Anyone with young bn's confirm if this happens?

Anyways the main question is, I was talking with the person who is in charge of buying the pleco's there and they said they got them from a local breeder. According to the breeder it was two albino bn plecos that "threw" (breeding term for gave birth?) to this batch of plecos. I am having a hard time believing this. I understand that coloration genes are very complicated, but I thought that in general abinism was a recessive trait, which would mean that if two plecos where truely albino they would have to throw 100% albino's. Anyways even if that is not the case I would hazard to guess that you still wouldn't get 100% non-albino. The fish store does from time to time buy lemondrop bn pleco's but they said that they only get adolescent ones (not babies) and that they hadn't ordered them for a long while (they are all out). I can try to get a picture of them but it will be quiet difficult and the quality probably won't be very good.

I am assuming that the breeder is yanking everyones chains, let me know if anyone has any ideas/experiences in breeding albinos and getting "normals" back?
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There are two loci for albino genes... The mom and pop could have had different genes,
It is quite possible for the albino fish to make ordinary babies.

I agree it is a pain to wait for them to grow out. I have four long finned albino bushy nose plecos (well, one actually has short fins) that I have been raising since they were about 1 inch.
Now at about 2 inches, they do feed a bit easier
Yes there are two Loci involved. The albino gene is recessive but if the males genes are on one locus and the females are on the other then you will get all normal (brown) babies. Now if you breed those brown ones you will get 50% albinos, half on one locus and half on the other.
The white band on the caudal fin will disappear as they grow older.
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