Inheritance of body color in Taiwanese red tilapia. In：R.S.V. Pullin, T. Bhukaswan, K. Tonguthai and J.L. Maclean (eds.)

Abstract

The inheritance of body color was studied in Taiwanese red tilapia. Randomly selected red tilapia broodfish were stocked in aquarium and in small concrete ponds with a male to female ratio of 1:3. Eggs or newly hatched larvae were collected from individual females separately every two weeks or whenever mouthbrooding was observed. Eggs removed from each mouthbrooder were artificially incubated. In a couple of instances young larvae were directly collected from the mouthbrooding female. After the eggs were hatched the larvae were kept in a plastic container and aerated. Red and normal (black) body color can be distinctively separated when yolk sac fully disappears. Body color was visually examined and separated for each fry two weeks after hatching. The fry in each brood were separated for red and normal (black) body color and the numbers of fry for each color were counted. A phenotypic ratio of 3 to 1 for red and normal (black) body color was obtained. This indicates that the body color of red Taiwanese tilapia is controlled by a single gene and red is dominant over normal (black).