Black Zebras???
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Exactly. The $64K question right now is who are the parents of these little guys. And what do you mean by 'a few,' percentage-wise. And these fry are viable, and grow into all-black adults? I've not seen this before, and it's really interesting.Deeda said:
The only other mbuna are
Albino red top hongi
Yellow labs
Also some sciaenochromis fryeri, one tropheus duboisi
The rest are South American.
There are several very heavily black spotted orange (very little orange at all)obs in each batch of fry, but only two or three of the solid black ones. The biggest one so far is about an inch and is still black.
Albino red top hongi
Yellow labs
Also some sciaenochromis fryeri, one tropheus duboisi
The rest are South American.
There are several very heavily black spotted orange (very little orange at all)obs in each batch of fry, but only two or three of the solid black ones. The biggest one so far is about an inch and is still black.
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997 Posts
Well, given the inhabitants of your tank, I would say that it is very likely that the two fishes in the pic you posted are the true parents. So what to make of the black progeny?
OB Malawian fishes differ dramatically in appearance one from another: some have lots of black patches (like your male), some have very few (like your female). The patterns themselves are thought to arise from differential migration of melanocyte precursor cells (black pigment-producing cells) during development, and clonal expansion of their progeny. For example, if you look at the male's tail, it is easy to imagine that whilst this embryo was developing, between 6-8 melanocyte precursor cells were located in the tail bud (at the base of the tail), and as the tail grew, each of these precursors gave rise to the melanocytes that occupy each of the 6-8 'rays' of black pigment in the adult tail. The same is true throughout the body of the fish. The point here is that the pattern is unpredictable, because it depends on the migration of individual melanocyte precursor cells during development. That is, the pattern has a somatic, not a genetic basis.
Given that unpredictability, the surprising thing is that your little black fishes are so black, without light patches anywhere. One way to explain this would be to say that these particular embryos had an excess of melanocyte precursors, so that pigment-producing cells came to reside virtually everywhere in the body, producing all-black fishes. This would be consistent with your observation that you also obtain very heavily black-spotted OB fry.
I would encourage you to keep as many of these black fishes as you can, and when they mature, to cross them to each other. In the next generation I would expect many all black progeny, but at some point OB fishes may reappear in the pedigree as well.
This is cool; keep us posted! :thumb:
OB Malawian fishes differ dramatically in appearance one from another: some have lots of black patches (like your male), some have very few (like your female). The patterns themselves are thought to arise from differential migration of melanocyte precursor cells (black pigment-producing cells) during development, and clonal expansion of their progeny. For example, if you look at the male's tail, it is easy to imagine that whilst this embryo was developing, between 6-8 melanocyte precursor cells were located in the tail bud (at the base of the tail), and as the tail grew, each of these precursors gave rise to the melanocytes that occupy each of the 6-8 'rays' of black pigment in the adult tail. The same is true throughout the body of the fish. The point here is that the pattern is unpredictable, because it depends on the migration of individual melanocyte precursor cells during development. That is, the pattern has a somatic, not a genetic basis.
Given that unpredictability, the surprising thing is that your little black fishes are so black, without light patches anywhere. One way to explain this would be to say that these particular embryos had an excess of melanocyte precursors, so that pigment-producing cells came to reside virtually everywhere in the body, producing all-black fishes. This would be consistent with your observation that you also obtain very heavily black-spotted OB fry.
I would encourage you to keep as many of these black fishes as you can, and when they mature, to cross them to each other. In the next generation I would expect many all black progeny, but at some point OB fishes may reappear in the pedigree as well.
This is cool; keep us posted! :thumb:
Seems like you have a parent combo that is producing another level of mutation, very interesting. Raise both the all black and some orange black fry, and see if the all black has both sexes or whether they are just one sex. You may have to breed an all black one with their OB sibling to try to get more black fry. Share some pics when they get bigger!
Good point. I never thought about the black ones potentially being one sex. I'll post more pics as they grow. They'll be difficult to sex so if anyone has ideas for help with that I'd welcome them. I haven't developed a keen enough eye for venting fish.
Zebras get sexually mature when they get over 2.5", and males look and act like males, females stay the same. If you keep juveniles only in a tank, a few young males act dominant early in the group. Venting juveniles is not easy, so don't worry about that.drewsda45 said:
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