"Discus Genetics and Breeding Info and Discussion"

[valery]

Hi Val, Another few weeks and the eye color will be more obvious, also the body color should be more yellow, or orange/red if you feed color foods. Have you got a pic of the fry?

Rod

Thank you for the reply Rod. Today I actually started to see some orangy/red appear on the top and bottom fins. I guess the color will fill in from the fins?? here are some pics of them from 2 days ago. The body is still just as white

[Rod]

Hi val,

I wouldn't worry about the color too much at this stage, the fry look very healthy and happy. You will find over the coming weeks there will significent changes to the way they look. The white body color is actually base color rather than pattern color, the redish color you are noticing in the fins will gradually spread through the body. Normally from about 4 weeks pattern will start to develop, generally in the fins and head first and gradually through the body (depending on strain). Some strains take 12 months or so before full color and pattern is finalized. Well done with these fry, they really do look good.

Rod

[Iggy]

Hi folks...relative newbie here as far as discus breeding goes. I have been trying to find some info on discus genetics but so far it seems pretty sparse (trade secrets belonging to the Eastern mass production farms, from what I have been told )...

ANyhow...I have a SantaRem from Hans Discus that has paired up with a blue snakeskin of unkown origen, and am wondering what the fry will look like...this is the first batch of fry that they have raised beyond free-swimming(probably because I kept the lights on) and I separated them at 3 weeks into a grow-out tank.

I gather the wild type is more dominant...so would most of these fry show up as Santa Rems? or will I get a mix?

[valery]

Hi val,

I wouldn't worry about the color too much at this stage, the fry look very healthy and happy. You will find over the coming weeks there will significent changes to the way they look. The white body color is actually base color rather than pattern color, the redish color you are noticing in the fins will gradually spread through the body. Normally from about 4 weeks pattern will start to develop, generally in the fins and head first and gradually through the body (depending on strain). Some strains take 12 months or so before full color and pattern is finalized. Well done with these fry, they really do look good.

Rod

Thanks very much Rod. The red color in the fins is becoming a little more and more nitoceable. Quite amazing to see them grow.

[Rod]

Hi folks...relative newbie here as far as discus breeding goes. I have been trying to find some info on discus genetics but so far it seems pretty sparse (trade secrets belonging to the Eastern mass production farms, from what I have been told )...

ANyhow...I have a SantaRem from Hans Discus that has paired up with a blue snakeskin of unkown origen, and am wondering what the fry will look like...this is the first batch of fry that they have raised beyond free-swimming(probably because I kept the lights on) and I separated them at 3 weeks into a grow-out tank.

I gather the wild type is more dominant...so would most of these fry show up as Santa Rems? or will I get a mix?

Hi iggy, you are pretty close regarding color, many will indeed look like santarems and some will have more blue and some may even develop a full blue pattern. But you have one mutant gene to consider, the snakeskin is a mutation controlled by a heterozygous dominant gene. Results with crossing will likely produce from 10% to 50% snakeskin babies. You will get santarems colored snakeskin and blue colored snakeskins. Good luck with the fry. Rod

[Iggy]

Thanks Rod!

What would be the allelles for doing a Punnet square for this cross? Or is there too much unknown? For example, SR for Santa Rem, SS for snakeskin...(scratching head)?

[Rod]

The allele symbols i would use for the punnett square on this cross would be WW & WS. W meaning wild type, S referring to the heterozygous snakeskin gene.

Rod

[Iggy]

So, I would then have a WW x WS, giving me 50% WW and 50% WS:

W

[Iggy]

*aaargh* pressed the wrong button LOL

Where was I? Oh yeah:


W S
W WW WS

W WW WS

[Rod]

Yes, should be 50% heterozygous snakeskins Iggy. % produced does vary quite a bit in practise however.

[Iggy]

The fry are running about 1/2" to 6/8" long...4 weeks old...water temp is 82-85*F, 50% water change every day, fed 3x daily with "Better than Brine"(from "UncleRick" on AquaBid)...most show evidence of the stress bars, and some have a bit of metallic blue/green sheen to them, some lighter, others darker...

Is their size OK for 1 month olds, or should they be bigger?

[mmorris]

Tail included? 1/2 inch, tail included, is pretty small. Mine are an inch + at a month. If you are concerned, you might want to post pics. I feed six or so times a day with bbs, bh, flake, chopped white worms, ground fdbw, etc.

[rdlee]

Very interesting topic. I bred this pair 1.5 year ago.



Now some of their offspring are 6".



My question is if I continue inbreeding these offspring, what will be the best ones I can get? possible Albino???

[Eddie]

No, no albinos. Was the entire batch pigeons or did you have some SS that were culled?

Disregard LOL, the pigeon gene is dominant so you couldn't have had any SS, had a brain fart. LOL


Eddie

[rdlee]

No, no albinos. Was the entire batch pigeons or did you have some SS that were culled?


Eddie

They are all PB. I didn't cull any and sold most of them. I noticed some no checkboard pattern. (see three on the right) They look like SS but no bars and with red eyes too.