30 replies to this topic

[Grado]

Imagine my surprise the other day when I found that my 1 male and 1 female cuckoo had spawned...

The next day there was bigger surprise as I found a second little cuckoo... but this time this one was an albino!

I do feel very fortunate and hope it survives!

Here are some more photos as promised of the slippery sucker, I'll try and get some better pics as it grows.

Cheers,
John

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[highlucks]

Very cool little fish mate. pic 3 is a good shot of it.

[dazzabozza]

Gday John

What were the host fish?


Daz

[Grado]

Hi Daz,

I didn't actually see the spawning but I have maingano and Aceii Tanzania in the tank. The parents seem to stake out the mainganos more but my money would be on the Aceii because they are of a larger size... not sure. I'll have to keep a closer eye on them in future.

Cheers,
John

[dazzabozza]

Will be interesting to see what results you get from future spawns. Hopefully the young albino will make it to sexual maturity too!

[Scat]

Absolutely awesome !!!

Please keep us posted with progress pics of this one !!

Cheers
Craig

[Fox]

Thats cool as a cucumber..

I never heard of an albino cuckoo.. Has anyone bred them before?

[cichlid hunter]

Very lucky!...

[Poncho]

Would of love to have seen your face when you found it

[Kimbo]

Congratulations mate! Havent seen or heard of any albino synodontis multipunctatus before, you may have been one of the first to spawn some!

[Cicolid]

Good work by your Synos. Please keep us up to date with the little fella.

Col

[(Anthony)]

Congrats,
that would of definatley been a surprise for the day,
Good luck with the lil fella

[Kenshin]

hey grado if i were you i would catch up the little cuckoo and move it to even just a small tank with a sponge filter so he definatly gets to maturity, if you breed him back to his parents he should produce some hets then you breed them back to eachother and you should get some more albino's let me know if you dont have any tank space i have a 2fter thats running with some fry in it atm,\ you can chuck him in, i live up the road, when he gets bigger throw him back in with his parents

[Grado]

Thanks for the support guys I will do my best to keep it alive until it matures... considering I have had a couple of mishaps in the last couple of years!

Thanks for the offer Kenshin but I have a spare 2' I can put it in, I just have to get another heater and set it up. I didn't even think to separate it!

Here's a couple more pics I took yesterday.

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[cichlid4lyf]

thats soooo coool!!!!!!
never seen that befor.
please please keep us updated!

phil

[Codfather]

Congratulations! I would have thought that if you get any albino fish at all, then every spawn should produce 25% albino. That's because each parent must carry a recessive gene for albinoism.

[Grado]

I think that's right, as the parents must both already be hets from what I've been told.

Out of a clutch of 4 they should produce 1 albino, 2 normal looking but carrying the albino trait and 1 normal looking but not carrying the albino trait.

So if I can get the albino to breed to a het then the chances to produce all albino offspring should double to 50% with the other 50% carrying the albino trait but looking normal.

I think that's right but please feel free to correct me.

Also just to let you know I got the parents from Mark at Atlantis a couple of years ago and I'm pretty sure they were from the same clutch.

I seem to remember he said Chucky(Chuckmeister?) bred them and who I think is still on this list. If he's around he might be able to shed some light on the geneology of these cuckoos!

[Cawdor]

Yes you are correct, albinism is usually recessive and if both parents are carriers it would show in 25% of offspring, 50% would be carriers and 25% would be clear ie do not have the genetic defect.

I read that exposure to heavy metals can affect occurrences of albinism as well.

[Poncho]

Chuck's no longer keeping fish according to the last time I spoke to him, which may have been last year I think.

I bought his cuckoos from him when he was packing it all up and bred quite a few offspring from them. Never had any albinos pop up though

[Grado]

Mark Cowling (Atlantis Aquariums) thinks it was Maz that bred these cuckoos. I think Maz is still kicking around these forums and might be able to comment on the parents.

Cheers,
John