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Re:the golden rams
Teresa,
It's not difficult to raise ram or other dwarf cichlid fry away from their
parents. Just siphon them out of the parents' tank with some airline tubing
(it helps to insert a pipette into the airline tubing so you have a rigid
section with which to 'aim' at the fry) and place them in a tank of their
own. Very small fry are often sensitive to the trauma of being netted, so
siphoning is the way to go, especially if the fry are in the 'wriggler'
stage (hatched, but not yet free-swimming).
As long as the fry have clean, fresh water, plenty of feed and are kept at
an appropriate temperature, they should do well.
As to whether the fry will all be golden, my guess is they likely will. I'm
not a genetics expert, but I will try to explain according to my level of
understanding.
Captive-bred traits like xanthic or albino coloration are a result of
careful line breeding to 'fix' the trait in a population once it crops up.
These traits are recessive, rather than dominant in nature. That means
that, unless both parents carry the recessive genetic code, none of the
resulting progeny will show the recessive trait, although some may carry it
genetically. In order for the trait to manifest itself, the progeny must
carry all recessive alleles for the trait. That is why line-breeding
(breeding progeny back to their own parents)of the strain is necessary; it
ensures that all of the progeny carry all-recessive genetic material for the
trait.
Your pair is composed of two 'golden' rams. That indicates that both
parents are all-recessive. Accordingly, I would expect that all of the
progeny would then show the recessive trait (yellow coloration).
There is always a 'fly in the ointment' though, it seems, and genetics is no
exception. Some mutations are not strictly dominant or recessive, there are
other classifications. Without doing more research than I want to, this
just means that what I've written is, again according to my limited
knowledge, a fair representation of the situation. I guess the best way to
find out is to raise the little fishies and see how they turn out!
I hope this is somewhat helpful. If any others on the list have more
knowledge on golden rams and the probability of purity in the strain, please
jump in!
Best,
Scott
From: TD7894@aol.com
Reply-To: apisto@listbox.com
To: apisto@listbox.com
Subject: Re:the golden rams
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 10:59:26 EDT
Hello, the rams have wigglers this morning so they must be fertile at
least.
I must ask really boring questions as hardly anyone answers me. I still
would like to know how hard it would be to steal the eggs from the rams and
raise them as opposed to putting them in a separate tank and letting the
parents do it. And also what will the fry look like, all golden, some
golden
some blue? Thanks, Teresa
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