9 replies to this topic

[humbug]

I have a breeding group of fuelleborni which I’ve enjoyed for several years.  Over those years I’ve raised a fair few fry from them.  On a couple of occasions I’ve notice a single fry far paler than its siblings, and apparently having pink eyes – an albino.  On both occasions I watched with interest, but the fish didn’t grow at the same rate as the other fry, and perished within a few weeks. 
 

A couple of weeks back I got a call from a shop I’d sold some fuelleborni to.  One of their customers had bought my fish and bred from them.  A single albino had been produced, and survived.  Now around 5cm, would I like it?  Although I’m not exactly a fan of albinos myself, I thought this might be an interesting little project.  The little guy arrived here last week.
 

A couple of days ago I collected fry from three of my Melanochromis kaskazini girls.  One brood didn’t look too crash hot – apparently three crook or dead ones amongst the 12 fry.  I didn’t think too much about it until I took a close look at the fry today.  Those three fish weren’t dead.  They are very much alive – they just don’t have the colour of the others!!!! 
 

I’ve been doing a little reading on the subject of albinos.  Apparently, while albinos in fish fry aren’t that uncommon, research tends to indicate that the albinism gene is generally semi-fatal, with only a small percentage of albino fry surviving. This corresponds with my experience in the past with the albino fuelleborni fry I've seen in my broods, and friends with bristlenose catfish tell of similar experiences. One research paper cites only 29 fish reaching maturity from 800 albino medaka embyos.
 

Well, it’s further piqued my interest. I’d love to hear of other people's experiences with finding odd albinos in the broods of normal coloured cichlids. How did they fare?
 

Also, if you keep one of the albino strains of cichlids, do you find them less hardy than their normally coloured brethren? Is the survival rate of their fry on par with the normal coloured equivalent?
 

 

Edited by humbug, 17 May 2016 - 01:51 PM.

[Chopstick_mike]

Never seen an albino fuelleborni before looks cool

[snakebite729]

I bred fuelleborni for many years and never had an albino fry make it past about 2cm. Some also had deformed spines and as such were culled as soon as I noticed the deformity. 
I've also kept albino peacocks in a male-only display tank together with many normal colored cichlids and they seemed to do quite well. Especially albino dragonbloods. They were basically exactly the same as a normal one, apart from their appearance, of course. All the albino display fish I've had have been sourced from local breeders that raise them in quite large numbers. The most recent albino fry I bought (probably around 3 years ago now) were from Linda and Colin, who now run GoTroppo Aquariums. They are on the PCS forum, but I can't remember their usernames. 
Hope this little guy turns out well, will be very interesting to see what it looks like as an adult.

Edited by snakebite729, 19 May 2016 - 11:59 AM.

[humbug]

Thanks for you input guys!  Its interesting, because there are obviously strains of albino fish which are truly viable.  I'm looking at these albino kaskazini fry and even though they are so small they still have the remains of their egg sacks, its already obvious that the albino fry are behind the development of their normal coloured siblings.  They are smaller, thinner and significantly less active.  I'm guessing they will struggle to survive.

 

A google search for "albino fuelleborni" images doesn't bring up too many hits, but there is one stunner there!!!  Will be interesting to see how this one turns out. 

[Chopstick_mike]

Ye I wonder why they are physically behind in development then there coloured siblings i mean true albinism only effects pigmentation and nothing else because albino people don't develop slower then non albinos

[humbug]

An update on this one.  I now have a small group of albino fuelleborni that all came from the same source as the one above.  The males and females are quite easy to tell apart - the females have the orange tinge of the fish in the photo above.  The males are an attractive silvery colour.  While the group is still young, I noticed the first mouthful today.  Both parents are albinos, so assuming the fry are viable, then technically they should all be albinos as well.  I continue to watch with interest

 

Edited by humbug, 30 April 2017 - 07:53 PM.

[Terry]

Over the last couple of years I had a pair of angels that were throwing about 30 percent  albinos, the female was a tri colour whose great grandmother was albino. I didn't bother much with them but I usually got a few fry that reached saleable size, they were always smaller than their siblings but eventually grew to be stunning fish.

While I was closing down my fish room I decided to separate a batch to see how they turned out, I syphoned out all the fry and then picked out the albinos with an eye dropper I ended up with about 150 fry.These fry were then treated the same way as all other angel fry in my fish room except for the fact that they were a small batch and they did not have to compete with normal siblings. They did very well because as I sold off breeders I had lots of room to spread them out and at 8 weeks they were getting close to a saleable size, it usually takes about 3 to 4 months to get to this size.

All the fish were sold off at about 10 weeks to a couple of local breeders and should start turning up in shops soon.

In my opinion albino fry are held back by siblings but given ideal conditions and no competition they will grow rapidly and possibly out do their siblings.

 

Cheers Terry

[Fish Antics]

Albino are not as strong as the normal variety. The gene cause the loss of melanin production, or a reduced amount of melanin production. This also effects the eye, which causes issues with their vision. This reduces their ability to find food and their competitiveness.

 

Tony

[hollis]

i have an albino discus that has been in the same tank whith other varients for over 12 months . the other fish have grown out nicely with great size , weight and shape , the albino however although very healthy and a great looking fish is somewhat smaller , and when i whatch them eat it is obvious the albino struggles to see the food and only will try to eat from the water column ,

the others eating the settled food are obviously getting a lot more nutrients .

[Peckoltia]

About 15 years ago I bought a colony of P. saulosi off another forum member. He told me that they threw albinos. Every mouthful would produce 1-3 albinos. These were always raised with the regular fry and didn't seem to be inhibited by their siblings.

 

The normal coloured fish looked as true as any Saulosi at the time, and not mixed with other mbuna.

 

In hind sight I should have done better (or cared at all) to get these established in Australia.