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I have a pair of Albino BN. I got them from two different trustworthy (and always high quality) independant breeders and after a long courtship, they have produced batches of fry. So, I have a couple of batches of fry growing out. I have noticed that some of the fry have large triangle shaped caudal-tail fins, which seem large relative to the rest of their body size. It just got me to wondering if the long-fin gene is recessive, and if there is a chance that I have a percentage of long-fin fry? Is this possible, and if so how soon would I see the pectoral fins appear longer than usual and I could easily know which is which?

Long fin is almost definitely a recessive trait - or you would have it in nature to much larger extent.

If both of your parents have genes for long fin (which they must have for the fry to have long fins), then you'd get about 1 in 4 (25%) fry that are long finned.

I have no experience in growing out long-fin bristlenose, so I can't say how easy it is to tell this and when it becomes obvious. (nor do I have any wish to gain such experience, really - my personal opinion of course).

--
Mats

I had an albino longfin BN female and a "normal" BN male (normal brown/grey color). They did breed and there were fry, but unfortunately, not knowing I had a male/female at the time, the other fish ate the fry.

I do have a "normal" colored BN longfin - actually 2. One is a male and one is a female. I got both when they were about 1.25" in body length and they already had obvious longfins at that point and are just getting longer as they get bigger. They are both about 3.25" or so in body length now.

I've also noticed on the fry swimming around that some are real orange and others are more of a clear pink color. Could be the food, I put in pellets and zuchini and algae tabs and other stuff, so maybe one prefers one kind of food over another.

JimmyB,
I have begun noticing that there are different degrees of alino coloration. The standard like color pink/orange and a darker version that appears to be more xanthic morph which is a darker "golden" color with a slight tan/yellow look.
Looks like we need to do some experiments to work out the genetics of the brown, albino, gold, piebald and the long fin traits.

Hello,

I am aware of 3 different lines of albino BN ranging from almost white, to the very deep gold that apistomaster mentioned. I don't know of anyone having bothered with establishing any except the white which doesn't really appear all that white to me. This is not to include those strains of albino outside Ancistrus cf sp. 3, which I'd love to get my hands on if anyone in the US knows where they can be gotten.

As to the LF question, it is not uncommon for some fry from a regular spawn to have disproportionately long fins at a certain stage of growth. If it does happen to be LF fry, the fins will continue to grow. If not, the fish will "grow into" them. With LF, by the time the fry are 3/4 inch SL, it will be obvious which are going to be LF fry.

Larry Vires