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We have been paddling around this one gene pool for the last four pools hopeful of finding the color cobalt. This specific gene pool can be traced back to the original infant tuxedo pair we loaded from the tuxedo file in pool 25. We have seen yellow, yellow/pumpkin, turquoise, jade, light denim/dark denim, aqua/sky, peacock blue, silver and pewter. This specific gene pool also contains the grass tail pattern. The closest we have come to cobalt is in the grass denim and grass peacock/navy strains. It's time to make something happen.

So far we have not introduced any new genetic material nor have we made a single back-cross. Let's select a red strain to out-cross with one of our blue strains and see if perhaps we can help Mother AZ get with our program. We want cobalt! Enough is enough.

I looked long and hard at all the blue strains we have stabilized and decided that the grass denim strain was the one I wanted to use in this out-cross. Why? It seems to me that it come closest to my mental image of dark cobalt blue without the green under colors of jade or peacock blue. Just a hunch really. If it doesn't work then we can select another strain. For the red strain I have selected the "garnet" color that most AZ guppy breeders see whenever a CD pair of red tails are mated to produce a F1 generation. (The "garnet" color and the "cardinal/scarlet/vermilion" color seem to be "standard" AZ red tail colors and are usually easy phenotypes to stabilize.)

Here are representative males from the two strains being out-crosed.

Since I wish to maintain the tuxedo body pattern I select a female from the tuxedo file and a male from the red tail file.

Here are the males produced in the F1 generation of this out-cross.

Wow, what a colorful batch of F1 males we have here! Again, notice that they all look alike. Clear multi is Mother AZ's standard phenotype for the F1 generation whenever red tail and tuxedo strains are out-crossed. . (Darn, I wish I could convince Mother AZ to let me have the very bright purple in the peduncle crescent as an all over tail color. To date no luck.)

Well, let's see what we can find in this gene pool. I selected a random pair from this batch to produce a F2 generation to take a look at.

Here are the males produced in this F2 batch.

Mother AZ shows us six different phenotypes in this batch.

Male number five is blue. I want blue (cobalt blue). I could use this male and start off on a multi generation search like we have been on hoping to find my goal color. Enough of this bumbling around. I say it is time to see if we can make Mother AZ produce something new and wonderful (like cobalt). I decide to setup a series of back-crosses using this blue male for as many generations as it takes Mother AZ to produce something "new and wonderful" (like cobalt). If not cobalt maybe royal purple. Hey, it's worth a shot. Nothing to loose by trying. Let's get started and see what we can make Mother AZ produce.

I mated Mr. Blue Number Five with one of his sisters to produce this F3 batch of males.

Well, Mother AZ went from six phenotypes to two. I see nothing here I want to chase. Let's haul Mr. Blue Number Five out of his file and mate him with one of his daughters from this generation to produce a batch of F4 males to take a look at.

Here are the males in the F4 generation.

Obviously we need to go another generation. We haul Mr. Blue Male Number Five out again and mate him with one of his grand daughters from this batch to produce the F5 generation.

Here are the males in the F5 generation.

Drum roll, trumpet fanfare and loud applause please. Looks like a clear cobalt male to me. Thank you Mother AZ. Now let's get to work and see what we can do with this guy and his sisters.

Mr. Cobalt Blue has four sisters. Selecting the first sister from the file and mating her with Mr. Cobalt Blue produced this F6 generation.

In this batch we see not only clear cobalt but also grass cobalt (now much improved over the peacock/navy grass we produced in pool 27). Selecting a clear cobalt male from this batch and mating him with one of his sisters produces this batch of F7 males.

Still not even close. OK, OK, OK. Patience, patience, patience. Let's again select a clear cobalt male from this batch and mate him with one of his sisters to produce a F8 generation to look at.

I have a suspicion that this strain is going to be clear cobalt that is heterozygous for grass. Again selecting a clear cobalt male and one his sisters I produced this F9 batch of males.

Yep, I have been using a clear male for three generations yet I continue to see grass males in the brood. At this point I decide to accept what Mother AZ will let me have and selected a grass male to produce the F10 and F11 generations. As expected, since the clear cobalt males were heterozygous for grass the grass cobalt phenotype stabilized in two generations.

Here are the males in the F12 generation.

This grass cobalt strain resulted from the first sister we tried way back at the F5 generation. Returning to that file I selected the next sister in the file and mated her with Mr. Clear Cobalt, hoping that she was the source of the heterozygous gene for the grass tail pattern.

Here are the males produced in this F06b generation.

Moving on to the next generation I selected a clear cobalt male from this batch and mated him with one of his sisters to produce the next F07b generation.

Hummmmmm, all clear? Yep all clear for the next three generations. Returning to the F5 generation and selecting another sister resolved the heterozygous trait for the grass tail pattern. 'Twas the first sister who was heterozygous for grass, not Mr. Cobalt Blue.

Here are the males produced in the F8-F10 generations.

Thank you all for the standing ovation. Did you think we would ever get to this point?

Here are grown males from both of these strains.

Is this the only way to achieve clear cobalt? Heavens no, clear cobalt can be found in the mosaic file (with some luck) and is one of the easier phenotypes to be worked within the bluegrass file. My first clear cobalt tuxedo strain came about while playing around with an albino strain and some tuxedo out-crosses (go figure).

I must admit that I no longer set out to create a specific color or tail pattern. It takes too much out of me. I get so involved in the process I forget to eat, walk the dog, watch TV or live my life. I now just take whatever Mother AZ will let me have. I give some thought to the strains I will use for the out-cross, then let Mother AZ take her own course.

Heterozygous: Embrace the Concept