My fry from my Common and Albino sf and lf spawn are leaving the cave. I noticed there are 3 different colors albino, brown,and a lighter splotchy brown tan color could this be calico or marble? Or is it just brown that hasn't darkened up yet, but there are 3 different colors coming out of the cave.

Anything is possible if you believe!!!!!!

Seriously though i've had that happen and the colors just darkened. But you never know.......

Do they look like calico fry? Those are reddish with a few teeny pinpoints of pigment; fairly distinctive. If they are just lighter brown, which is what it sounds like, then they will probably darken to regular old brown. I had browns from an albino/L-144 cross throw some fry that were lighter looking. When I looked closely they seemed lighter because their spots were larger so there was proportionately more light color. As they matured they darkened to be indistinguishable from my normal browns.

Hrmmm, *makes notes in my bristlenose genetics book*

And as mentioned it is possible. and very interesting! I say its interesting becasue it lends support to the fact that there is more than 1 gene at work for the colouration. I would suggeest like the others that they will get darker with age.

Just out of interest...what would you say the ratio of colours was? like is it 1/4 albinio, 1/4 lighter, 2/4 common? just that sort of info will be really handy for me

I would say by the looks of it 1/2 common more than a quarter albino and the rest the different color. The commons are green you can't miss them this differnt color is like a tan but has the same pattern of markings as the commons there is just a drastic color difference. Maybe I'm just getting my hopes up cuz I love the calicos. But we will see!! I know my Albinos are true no mix in them at all, I'm not sure about the Common males background, but the females come from generations of Albinos. Don't know if that sheds any light on it.