We have elected to try to isolate and stabilize a strain of "albino tux snakeskin multi tangerine coral with violet" from this out-cross. (I put all of the characteristics exhibited in a strain's phenotype into the strain name. Naming a strain something "cute" and then later trying to remember what the strain looks like became impossible for me as I accumulated several hundred phenotypes as stabilized strains. This approach produces some very long strain names! But, I can usually visualize what the strain looks like without having to load a male into the tank.)
The "snakeskin multi tangerine coral" phenotype has shown up in several F3 generations as we have explored this specific gene pool. The phenotype does not show up in any F2 generation I produce but does show up in F3 generations when I use a turquoise pistachio male to sire an F3, and only when I use a turquoise pistachio male as the father. Experience leads me to suspect that the trait is part of a package deal, or a heterozygous trait.
Let me show you how this works.
Here are the males of the F2c generation used to start our search.
The "albino tux tiger multi turquoise pistachio" was selected to produce the F3 generations.
These males were produced by one of the females from the F2.
In this F3 generation we produce two males of the "albino tux snakeskin multi tangerine coral" phenotype. We select one of those two males to produce the F4 generation.
Here we see the males produced in one of the F4 generations.
We see only two phenotypes in this batch. We select one of the tangerine males to produce the F5 generation.
Here are the males produced in one of the F5 generations.
This looks like a very good example of a heterozygous trait. Once again, we select a tangerine male from this batch to produce the F6 generation.
Here are the males from the F6 generation.
Again, we see a turquoise male in the batch. One more time a tangerine male is selected to produce the F7 generation.
Here we see the males of the F7.
Looks to me like we are well on our way to producing a strain of guppies that is heterozygous for two colors and two tail patterns.
To test my theory I continued mating a tangerine male with a randomly selected female for five more generations. Every generation produced two phenotypes, snakeskin tangerine and tiger turquoise. I consider this strain a good example of a stabilized heterozygous trait. I can consistently produce the tangerine multi but will always have a few turquoises in the batch.
Here is one of the guys all grown up.
I think he is a very beautiful guppy.
It is interesting to note that the turquoise phenotype can be separated and stabilized as a homozygous strain (please take my word for it). However, the tangerine phenotype cannot be separated from the turquoise. The snakeskin tangerine is heterozygous for tiger turquoise but the tiger turquoise is not heterozygous for snakeskin tangerine. Are you thoroughly confused yet ?
I have found that a few experimental back-crosses using an early generation male will quickly let me know if a phenotype is heterozygous (this is not etched in stone). If I am still seeing two or more phenotypes in the F5 or F6 generations using this technique I can be almost certain that the trait I am chasing is heterozygous.
The only phenotype we have not yet explored is Bluegrass. Can we find something new and exciting in the Bluegrass? One strain of Bluegrass coming up.
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