how to breed to get specific colourations

[paul_r]

I caught some wild sailfinmollies yesterday and have just been thinking about what i could do with them. I would like to breed them with some coloured mollies to get some neat coloured sailfins as the wild ones are very plain looking (but still neat)

I would like to breed a koi variation. I have no idea where to start. Could anyone help me out?

Thanks

[Barrie]

were you up this way Paul ?

Auckland?

[Barrie]

opps :oops:

Sorry, saw your other post.

There use to be some at Mercer south of Auckland so just guessed you were up this way and was going to mention to call in and say gidday... maybe in the future eh

[paul_r]

I will definatly call in and say hi when im in auckland next, am hopeing to come up and visit a few friends one weekend....maybe in a month or so.

But yes we went down Taupo ways and had a really good time, even visited the snow(hadnt planned it)....totally unprepared, most of us had shorts n t shirt, was very cold but the snow fight was great

But yea the mollies we caught are very healthy looking and very active, would be nice to cross them with some of the coloured varieties

[Ianab]

By all means breed them with your fancy ones. Hard to predict what the results will be, genetics gets pretty complicated like that. But I imagine you will get a pretty mixed bunch off offspring.

Chances are there will be some that inherit the nice colours of the fancy parent, and the toughness of the wild ones. Those are the ones to keep

Some might get the colour of the wild ones, and the wimpy constitution of the fancy ones - those are the culls.

You may get some interesting colour combinations, but thats more of a luck thing, who knows. The challange is then to get the offspring to breed true to their form and not revert back to the original look.

Good luck

Cheers

Ian

[David R]

Chances are there will be some that inherit the nice colours of the fancy parent, and the toughness of the wild ones. Those are the ones to keep

That pretty much sums it up. Genetics is a lottery, and you just need to play Darwin and pick the best ones to continue breeding from and cull the rest.

[rant]This doesn't happen often enough in the hobby IMO, and it mostly comes down to money/greed. Fish like convicts, kribs, angels and other easy to breed fish are often bred and sold [and bred again...] with no attention paid to quality of the parents/offspring etc. This is why wild caught fish often have better colouration, bigger size etc. All people care about is the $1.00 they're getting per fish. I would love to do some selective breeding of convicts to get the biggest, baddest and best coloured ones possible, unfortunately I haven't got the space. When was the last time you saw a male con pushing 6"? [/rant]

[new2discus]

Breeding can be a lottery, but if you keep records of what pairings you make, and the results from each pairing you should get an idea of the genetic makeup of each fish. You will quite likely get different results from the same fish, paired with different partners (just like us 8) ). This is just my 2 cents worth (coming from a plant breeder)

[shadowfax]

i think if you plan on doing it properly then keeping detailed records is a must. It will help you track who has produced what & give you a better idea of what to expect a few generations down the track. (coming from a bunny breeder!)

[Cricketman]

hey there, im pauls partner in crime i spose, lol im also doing some of the breeding like paul mentioned, i got 2 female sailfins and 2 female white mollies atm in with a sailfin male (4:1, sometimes enough to make you wish you were a mollie... ) they all seem to have mated with the male and now im just waiting till they drop the fry (by then ill have the colours seperated in different breeder nets with java moss)

playing darwin is soo much fun, so glad i took year 13 bio... :lol: