Ailing krib and Krib genetics

["Alicia and Simon Voorwinde" <svavev@hunterlink.net.au>]

Hi, This is my first post to the mailing list so I hope it ends up where it
is meant to. I hope you don't mind me asking questions about krib instead of
apistos.

I have two queries; 1 a problem and the other a question on genetics.

I have a pair of albino krib who have spawned recently. They appeared to be
fine until Monday ( 27/3 ) and the female began to look ill. She began
hiding and gasping very heavily. All the other fish seem fine, even
outstanding. Tank inhabitants include sturisoma whiptail catfish,
bristlenose, and otocinclus. Water conditions 1dKH, 7dGH, ammonia 0, nitrite
0, ph 6.5, temp a little high ( very hot days lately ) at 29 degrees celcius
( but I would have thought that would help boost the immune system ). Any
ideas what may be ailing her ?

The other thing is a group of people around Australia who visit my dwarf
cichlid discussion forum are about to embark on a project called the Krib
project. In this project we are going to try and undertake a breeding
project to try and improve the vigour and colour of a bread and butter
species like the kribensis ( our subject ). We would select krib pairs and
breed them selecting the most colourful and hardy individuals to breed from,
culling the rest and swapping the best of the spawn with the other breeders
around the country ( frieght around Australia is cheap and quick ). At the
moment we are gathering information about inheritance patterns in kribensis.
The kind of things we are seeking is which features of krib are inheritable
traits and which are environmentally influenced traits. Traits like vigour
 I don't know whether anyone has noticed but male krib seem to die a lot
just after spawning and are less vigourous than they were say 10 years
ago ), number of ocelli on the tail and dorsal, and intensity of the red on
the bellies of both males and females, the extent of the red on the belly of
the female, the mothering instinct of female krib and the defensive nature
of male krib, are examples of traits we'd like to improve but this is
pointless if we don't know how these traits are inherited. Ultimately we'd
like to tackle one of these traits at a time ( no point trying to improve
all of them at once ) and then breed the improved strains and release them
to pet stores around the country. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

On a related matter - my albino krib pair have recently spawned as I said
above and have produced about 50 fry, half of which seem to be albino and
the other half seem to have the wild type phenotype. Since then I have found
out that albinism in albino krib is a codominant gene. If wild type fry are
produced does this mean they don't carry the albino gene at all
( homozygous ) or aren't my krib parents real albinos ( the male has black
eye spots on his tail and dorsal, not colourless white ones ) ?

Regards,

Simon Voorwinde

=========================================================
svavev@hunterlink.net.au
http://thecichlidtank.cjb.net
=========================================================



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@listbox.com.
For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
email apisto-request@listbox.com.
Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!