Tiger Barb Genetics?

[pkppv]

So im interested in breeding tiger barbs, and am very curious as to how genetics work with this particular fish. Albinism is pretty straight forward, but what about the green barbs i have heard about? Why do these fish display so much green pigmentation? Ive heard it is the tyndall effect, but how exactly does that go about happening in fish?

 

[pkppv]

Well if no one is going to tell me, i guess ill experiment and use my biology/genetics knowledge and the number of each colouration in the offspring to try to determine about how many alleles go into the green colouration, and their type of dominance. Ive already devised an experimental procedure, and ill get back to you all with the results.

I plan on breeding and recording the results of the following mixes of tiger barbs:

green x green
green x wild colour
green x wild with slight green
slight green x slight green
slight green x wild colour
slight green x albino
albino x albino

Most of this breeding will be to determine how many and what type of alleles affect green colouration. Of course my results wont be perfect, but by comparing ratios to hypothesized probabilities i should be able to see about how many alleles affect green colouration (within 1 or 2 alleles), and it should be obvious just about how completely or incompletely dominant these alleles are. In addition, it should also be obvious if the green alleles are dominant or recessive.

Edit: I have thought more on the subject and it turns out that, in order for me to attempt to make a conclusion on all these grounds i will only need to make the following pairs:

green x wild
slight green x slight green
albino x wild

These 3 mixes will be enough to determine all i need to know and will save me time, space, and effort, while adding only a bit more thought and punnett square making.

 

[pkppv]

Ive also been informed that the slight green is a social display kind of thing, but ill be sure to find out.

 

[pkppv]

If anyone else has done some good research and could offer any insight into how genetics role in tiger barb colouration, i would be more than happy to learn what you have to teach, and maybe save myself some work in the proccess.

 

[Peggers]

Don't you first need to make sure that all lines breed true ie Green x Green always gives Green?

 

[pkppv]

Not nessecarily. That could be calculated by the results of green x wild, and if the results of that dont fit any regular genetic model, then yes i would check green x green

 

[fluttermoth]

Interesting experiment! I'm very interested in colour genetics myself, but am only familiar with mammalian genes, so I can't be much help, I'm afraid.

I can tell you that the green tigers are a variety of the wild colour, where the black stripes have spread out and joined together; this maybe due to polygenes (the same ones that control the extent of white markings in mammals), so I don't think there's much point in breeding greens and wilds; you'll just end up with poorly marked versions of those varieties (ie, wilds with extra splodges and 'deformed' stripes and greens with less black and therefore less green).

 

[pkppv]

Well if thats the result, then i have learned something!! But who knows, maybe theyl all be green, or all be wild colour, or have a startling ratio of color types. I wont let this stone go unturned =p