AZ provides the guppy breeder little to work with when it comes to body color. The tuxedos are presented in basic black and the red tails and mosaics exhibit scant deviation from the caudal color pixels that sparkle if you look real close. One more body pattern can be created when we add the cobra body pattern to the simple black of the tuxedo to create the cobra tux.
The male passes on the cobra body pattern. Using a female cobra in an out-cross is the same as using a mosaic female. Female cobras and mosaics will pass on color and tail pattern but only the cobra male can pass on the cobra body pattern. If we use a cobra male and a tuxedo female to produce the F1 generation of this out-cross we are well on our way to creating a stable strain of cobra tux.
I have elected to out-cross our strains of "cobra tiger multi electric blue" and "tuxedo pearl gray". Once again I am keeping my fingers crossed, hoping to see only one phenotype in the F1 generation. The blue of the cobra will probably not appear, as it is a recessive color. The pearl gray of the tuxedo line would lead one to believe that the colors might blend and produce a paler shade of blue in the F1 males. HA! AZ does little "blending" of colors. The pearl gray of the tuxedo is probably "hiding" yellow. (As I remember, when we were creating the pearl gray tux the F2 generation we chose to work with contained a yellow tux male.) Enough talk, let's put a pair in the tank and see what happens.
Here are the males produced in this F1 generation.
THEY ALL LOOK ALIKE! We mixed clear pearl gray with tiger multi electric blue and we see leopard yellow in the F1. Go figure. Well, we have learned that the F1 generation of any out-cross offers us few clues as to what will appear in the F2 and F3 generations. Let's mate several pairs from this batch and explore the gene pool AZ has dealt to us this time.
Batch F2a:
We see tuxedo and non-tuxedo body type. We have clear, leopard and tiger tail patterns. And the colors we see are yellow, silver and blue.
Batch F2b:
We can add leopard multi to the phenotypes available in this pool. Non-tux is also present in the group.
Batch F2c:
Well, lookie there. Our goal phenotype shows up. Let's place a "+" sign in the file info to let us know this might be a promising batch to use for the F3.
Batch F2d:
AZ is saying we can have a whole bunch of strains out of this out-cross. We gotta pick just one to work with at a time.
Batch F2e:
More of the same. Have you seen enough?
Let's go back to the F2c and mate the blue tux male with a few of his sisters to find our F3 generation.
The first two females produced yellow and pearl gray males. The third and forth females tested produced these males.
Batch F3c:
We got the blue color but these guys are all leopards.
Batch F3d:
There's our goal phenotype, front and center.
We will mate him with several of his sisters to see where this cross is headed.
Batch F4a:
Tiger and leopard tail patterns in addition to two colors of blue are produced. Can you say HETEROZYGOUS?
Batch F4b:
Three to one, I like those odds. Let's go on the F5.
We select one of the blue tiger multi males and pair him with a sister to produce the F5 generation.
The first female produced these guys. (I won't bore you with family pics of all the other batches.)
We've lost the leopard but still have two shades of blue. Which shade should we go for? Which shade is homozygous? Which shade will AZ let us have? Let's go for the darker electric blue. I like electric blue. We select an electric blue male and mate him with his sisters to produce the F6 generation.
The first female produced this group.
What shade of blue is that? I don't think it's electric blue. (Cute AZ, real cute.) We probably didn't find the "right sister", but, we are at the F6. Experience tells me that if I still have to look for the "right sister" at the F6 I might need to go back a few generations and start over.
Should we back-cross to the F5 electric blue male? NO, NO, NO! When we suspect we are dealing with a heterozygous trait we never, never try a back-cross. (Well, I might try just to see what might show up.) Let's stick to the plan and mate one of these guys to his sisters. If we find the right sister….
Here are the males produced by the first female tested to produce this F7 generation.
Two shades of blue are once again produced. (You know I'm starting to like that aqua color.) Looks like we are dealing with a heterozygous trait. But is this strain "aqua hetero for electric" or "electric hetero for aqua"?
Picking one of the electric blue males we go for the F8 generation.
Again, we get two shades of blue. H E T E R O Z Y G O U S?
Well, we have come this far. Let's see what this electric blue male and one of his sisters will produce.
I had a hunch. Still, AZ only gave us three males. Might be an optical illusion.
One more time.
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