Simple genetics question

I have a few pretty simple genetics questions that I think I know the answers to but I want to make sure.

I bred an amel male to an anery female and she laid 21 eggs. last night they started to hatch and I have noticed that I am getting amels, anerys, and normals (a nice surprise for me).

I have no idea what the genetics of the parents are and as such I was only expecting to get normals but I was expecting those normals to be het for both amel and anery. My first question, would this be a correct assumption?

I assume that since I am getting all three morphs that the male must have been het for anery and the female het for amel. My second question, would this be a correct assumption?

Third question. Given what I now know (or think I know) can I consider my amel babies to be het for anery and vice versa?

Fourth question. If I were to breed any combination of these babies together, even the normals, could I expect to get snows (not that I would breed siblings for this purpose. I already have 1.2 snow adults)

As for the genetics of my parents, could they have come from a snow/amel or snow/anery breeding? I assume that since they are each het for the other a snow must have been involved somewhere along the line. Is this a correct assumption?

Needless to say I am very happy with the results of this breeding. I thought I was going to be loaded with snows (from my other trio) and normals with no amels or anerys. Now I should have a mix of all of them.

Two more questions ( I promise) I bred a female normal (assuming not het for anything which could be wrong) with a sunglow. I am assuming all the babies will be normal looking. If so, could I consider the babies het for sunglow or is there something else needed to make this so. Also, what hets would my female need to possibly throw anything but normal looking babies (amel? snow? hypo?)

Thanks in advance

Steve Schindler

Question 1: If neither the amel nor the anery parent were het for the "opposite" trait, then all the offspring would be normal but het for both traits. You made a correct assumption.

Question 2: Since you are getting normal, amel and anery offspring, then, yes, both parents are het for the other trait. You can also get snow offspring from this pairing.

Question 3: Yes, the amels are het for anery, the anerys het for amel, and the normals het for amel and anery (aka - snow).

Question 4: Breeding the offspring to each other can produce snows. Breeding parent to offspring can also produce snows. And as mentioned earlier, you can already get snows from breeding the parents.

Question 5: A snow MAY have been involved, but not necessarily. Recessive traits can be passed down for many generations before ever being expressed. Quite a number of combinations over several generations could bring you to the same results. Using a snow gets you there quicker and guarantees the het status of the offspring.

Question 6: Breeding a normal to a sunglow (and assuming the normal is NOT het for anything), all the offspring would be normal het for amel. Sunglow is a variation of amel selectively bred to eliminate all the white. This trait is not really completely inheritable. You have a better chance of producing sunglow offspring when you breed 2 sunglows together, but it cannot be guaranteed. A more recognizable way to describe it would be: breed a Great Dane (dog) to a Great Dane...you get Great Dane puppies. Breed a Great Dane to a Collie, you get mutts. If, over many generations, you breed those mutt puppies to each other and keep only the puppies that look more like Great Danes, perhaps breed a "purebred" Great Dane into the line every once in awhile, you will eventually get pups that look like purebred Great Danes. In another 10 generations, they could probably be considered purebred again.

Question 7: Your normal MAY be het for just about anything. If you get amel offspring, you know she is het for amel. If you get anery offspring, you know she is het for anery...and the male sunglow is also het for anery. If you get snow offspring, then you know both parents are het for both amel and anery. If you were to breed your normal to a hypolavender bloodred, and get hypolavender bloodred offspring, then you know your normal is het for hypo, lavender, and bloodred...and..., you're then the luckiest person alive and you need to pick my Lotto numbers!! LOL!!

You seem to have the basic genetics down. It CAN get a bit confusing, especially now that there are at least 4-5 known hypo genes, the motley, stripe and motley/stripe connection can be a little confusing (and there may be more than 1 type of motley), and the whole zigzag/aztec thing will drive you crazy if you try to put it simply.