Quote Originally Posted by nc0gnet0 View Post
While not unique to the strain, barless would be one trait. You can take one of these clean pigeons and breed them back to a barred non pigeon like a red turq and whala-there's your pepper. I do agree that there is more to the pb mutation than just the pepper, not only does it scatter the melanin pigmented cells from the stress bar zones (which I believe then makes it easier to "clean up") but it also appears to effect to some degree other pigments in the fish as well.

I can add a few other interesting questions while we are at it as well......

Why, in the heterogeneous state, when it co-exists with the Snow White gene, do the coloration always take place on the lower half of the fish? example red/white yellow/white...

Why, when combined with the BD gene does this pepper go from black to blue? Is the BD gene and the PB gene actually different mutations of the same gene?
Good questions Rick...Im guess co-dominance and blending is going on. We often talk fish genetics using the one gene one trait model, but often multiple genes are involved in the trait we see.