I'm not sure we have to know what went into the make up of the early cultivated forms of BN, we just need to figure out what's there now and how it works. My guess is that you are right about the 3rd type of albino, the lighter orange with spots, that it probably represents a cross of the other two types; though not a first generation cross. I think color (orange vs light yellow) and pattern (spots or lack of) are inherited separately. I also think type 1 and type 2 albinos, while both being true albino are albino due to different flaws/disruptions of pigment production and are thus inherited separately. The biggest problem I see is being able to correctly identify the type of albino we are looking at.

Based on correspondence I've had with others I think albino type 3 will probably produce albino with type 2 and all or some brown with type 1. I have type 2 albinos and just purchased some juvi BN of type 3. I plan to cross the two types later on and I will report here what results.

Besides color and pattern genes there are also modifying factors, groups of little infinitesimal traits that come together quantitatively to affect the exact shade of a color, or placement of dots etc. It is sounds like it may be these modifying factors that are responsible for the deep color of your female albino. You mentioned she does not reproduce her color, but you did not say how she was bred;was she inbred to son, father or sibling, or to an unrelated albino of her type, it can make a difference.

I have 3 adult albino type 2. 2 males and 1 female. Both males do have spots on the head only, though not as many as your male in the photo. The males developed the spots only at full maturity, and the female does not have spots at all; nor is she particularly deep colored like that female of yours. Do your type 2 females have spots on their heads or only your males?

so my albino male has been with my common female. Lets say from the hatch is albino female. If eventually she breeds with another albino will there still be common offspring as well as albino?

There could be. Albinos to albinos have been know to produce 100% brown fry, 100% albino fry or a mix of the two colors. This does not mean that BN do not follow the "rules" of genetics, it means that we really haven't a clue as to how the genes of the BN interact or even what they are. Searching for those answers is what this thread is all about.

never was any good at science

Albinos, be they fish or rabbits or what have you, have all the color and pattern genes non albino individuals do with one exception. They have inherited some genetic flaw, which prevents dark pigments from being made and that in turn prevents them from visually showing what they are. An albino could be a brown, calico, L-144 or any other color a BN can be, you just can't see it because it can not make the dark pigment needed to show those colors and patterns.

The production of pigment is a multi step process. A disruption at say the first step in the process, and a different disruption at say the last step would both cause pigment not to be made and result in an albino. The flaw at step one and the flaw at the last step may be controlled by separate genes unrelated to each other. I think this is the case with the two main types of albino BN. Flaws at different genetic sites that prevent dark pigment from being formed. What you see is similar, a yellow to orange fish with red eyes. It makes sense to me, that if the flaw is at a different spot in the pigment production chain, then the albino itself, while a true red eyed form, might be just slightly different from the other type, and this is what we see. IF this hypothesis is true, you could have fish that was a double albino, which should produce albino no matter what type of albino it was bred to. You could have an albino of one type that was a carrier of the other type that could produce both albino types and browns, or an albino that was albino at one point only that when bred to the opposite type will produce only brown. This seems to fit what people report, but it's all speculation and guess work until the results of very specific test breedings are seen.

I'm looking forward to the albino type 2 albino type 3 cross also. It will be a while as the type 3 are maybe an inch and a half right now.

I recently bred Brown male with Albino Female & Albino Male with Brown Female all fry were brown.I have recently had two broods from the Albinos which I paired together & all were albino.I did this experiment because a couple of years ago I was told that you had to cross Brown & Albino to get Albino again along with some Browns.I have been breeding Albinos for a couple of years now but always Male & Female Albino.I experimented to prove the guys theory wrong,Brown appears to be the dominant gene when crossing.

Well here's my contribution, I have breed my Albinos they are a Type 2 male sf and a Type 2 female sf and have gotten Type 2 fry and a lighter fry with no spots. I also breed a Common brown male x and my Type 2 female and have gotten a 50/50 split of browns and albinos but the albinos are lighter with no spots at all. When the fry first left the cave from the Albino x Brown cross I thought I had 3 different fry but the lighter browns that I thought were Calico fry darkened right up like the other browns in the lot. But my Albino LF female dosent fit Type 1,2,or 3 she is a very white with a pinkinsh tint to her with spots on her head but only half as much as the Type 2's. Anyone shed some light on that one?

Great info coming out here guys!

I am noting it all down and adding it to my data sets.

I am trying to split the albinos but its a bit hard with people being confused with the different types. great job Deano with the pics. Def helping people out.

Remember to tell me about fin length too With fin length it seems that there is 3 types. Longfin, mediumfin and shortfin. The medium fin only seems to become apparent when they get a little bit older and as such my be hard for people to keep track of. but even if its just either long or short thats great too

Keep the info coming guys!

I sift though all sorts of forums, articles etc, and did read recently that somebody sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of the common BN, A. cf cirrhosus and the color morph L-144 and found them to be identical.

I am also hearing reports of a new color morph L-144 variant, dark eyed yellow with spots.

id like to know how to get this variant

A dark eyed white, yeah, I'd like to know how to get that too!!!

There is something that evidently works on the red/yellow pigment to lighten them, but leaves the dark black/brown pigments intact. I have seen photos of what looked like a calico with pinkish white, rather than red under color. This fish was a dark eyed pink as a juvi and a year later was pink and brown like a washed out calico.

Lunchbox mentioned a bit above that when he crossed two type 2 albinos he got type 2 fry and some lighter ones with no spots. I found that interesting as I have a pair of type 2 albinos, and one of their fry is not darkening up to golden yellow like the rest, it's more white, and because it's one of the larger robust fry, I don't think there is anything "iffy" with it. I plan to keep it and test breed later.

Also saw photos of fry from a pair of BN that consistently produced 3 types of fry: normal brown, standard albino, and distinctly white. The white fry in this case were also half sized runts. I don't recall if they died on their own eventually or if the breeder culled them out because of their small size. This is probably a totally different thing causing the white color, but something I keep in the back of my mind.

iv heard of albinos throwing really light fry. mostly light pink in color rather than the common yellow or cream color of the usual albinos. but these light ones from what iv read are really finicky and seem to die really easily. with my first successful spawning of my albino longfins the fry are all albino and the fins are starting to lengthen. but im hoping that over time i mite find somethin different in the batches like an oddball. not for breeding just for display, i have no intentions of tainting my longfin genes as so far they are throwing 100% alb lf fry and thats what i want