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I need some guidance from those of you who are both passionate and knowledgeable about the world of the common bristle-nose. First off, I am very strongly against any sort of hybridization or cross breeding in my tanks of 'other fish'. I would never let any fry leave my tank unless I was sure 100% of the parents of the fish.

I am simply not sure what is considered a hybrid with BN. Am I being over-cautious? Is it considered hybridizing or cross-breeding if one crosses a brown BN with an albino BN? What about a brown longfin BN with a brown short-fin BN? What about a brown long-fin with an albino short fin? I am re-arranging tanks and might move some fish but first want to know what you think.

Crossing an albino with a brown with a veilfin with a piebald etc etc is not hybridization - they're all the same.

A hybrid is a cross between two species. Veilfin etc are merely cultured varieties (cultivars) of the same species - and to top it off that species is probably already a hybrid to start with (see the cat-elog entry for Ancistrus sp. 3).

So from an ethical point of view I'd say "cross away". However, you'll likely find it easier to sell pure albinos & veilfins than the bog-standard BN's that'll be the F1 result of such a cross.

I have brown veilfins, and short fin albinos. I was wondering if I crossed them, what the resulting fry would be, i.e. % of albino, veilfin, etc. I'm not sure if veil is a recessive trait just like albino would be?

To the best of my knowledge, veilfin (longfin) and albinism are both recessive traits - they are both negative in nature, so they are likely to be recessive for that reason.

Which means that if you cross an albino short fin with a brown long fin, all the children will be brown with short fins.

Parents: SSaa x ssAA -> children with sSaA or SsAa. Cross them again, and you'll get some that are long-fin and/or albino (a percentage will be both, but I can't do the math at the moment... I think it's 1 in 16 (so around 6%)).

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Mats

Just a quick note. I got curious and did the figures. 1:64 should theoretically contain the genes to produce albino and LF. 1:16 will contain one or the other.

Larry Vires

Thanks Larry. I was just too lazy to do the math...

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Mats