Albino Plecos produce a black one.

[GeorgeG]

I have a friend who has Albino Bushynose and in every clutch out pops a black one. Has anyone else seen this. Now he would not sell me the black ones so I got 20 of the Albinos to grow out. Now we are waiting for the black ones to grow and see what they are.

[LizStreithorst]

George, do your friend's plecos have a pink eye?   

[Mugwump]

It's pretty common....Our Browns throw the 'Albinos' ....unless it has a red eye, they're not really albinos, but a 'light tan/orange' brown type....the albino name gets thrown around a lot for these 'tannish' morph's....

[GeorgeG]

These are Albino so yes Red/Pink eyes

[Mugwump]

These are Albino so yes Red/Pink eyes

Cool....that means each parent is carrying a gene ....nice...

[LizStreithorst]

A pair of red eyed should not be able to produce a black one.  I can think of no explanation for it.  Makes me wonder if you're pulling our leg.  If not, I'm fascinated.   

[Mugwump]

A pair of red eyed should not be able to produce a black one.  I can think of no explanation for it.  Makes me wonder if you're pulling our leg.  If not, I'm fascinated.

oops, the original parents were both Albino?....I misread the first posting.....true, Liz....one parent has to be the 'morph' brown type....'albino look alike..no red iris...

[LizStreithorst]

George says that both parents have the red iris.  If one of the parents were a morph I think there would be 25% would be blacks.  George says the black ones are a rarity.  I'd sure like to see good pics of the pair.

[BillT]

I have a friend who has Albino Bushynose and in every clutch out pops a black one.

This is not normal genetics, but neither is it beyond normal explanation.

There are at least to reasonable explanations for this kind of thing.

1) Revertants: A normal mutation is when the DNA changes and makes things in some way weird. A revertant would be a second change in that same gene that wither changes it back to normal or makes other changes in the gene to restore normal function (although not the same as the original gene).

2) Supressor: A supressor is a mutation in a different gene which modifies the function of the still mutant gene so that things end up looking normal (if it fully suppresses the original effect of the nutation).

Normally however mutations are pretty infrequent (less than one in a thousand) so one occurring over and over in a cross would be very unlikely. However, bits of DNA can act kind of like a genomic virus and move around from place to place in the genome. They are often called transposons because they transpose (move around) in the genome. This can happen relatively frequently and may be activated by fertilization. If it occured after fertilization you could get a mottled pattern of pigmented and unpigmented cells since some normal cells would be mixed in with unpigmented cells.

If one of these went into a color gene originally to make a mutant, it may just be hopping back out occasionally to recreate the normal situation.
I think something like has been described in snapdragon flowers.

[Mugwump]

You could be on to something there.....I've heard of folks getting a black angel from a Koi pairing...

[GeorgeG]

Next time I am at his house I will see about getting a photo of the parents but all my young ones from him are all albino. He only has one male an two female that he is spawning

[BallAquatics]

George says that both parents have the red iris.

The iris isn't really red, it's colorless so it appears to be red.  The eye normally produces enough pigment to color the iris  and lend opacity to the eye. However, with a true albino the eyes appear red, pink or purple, depending on the amount of pigment present, due to the red of retina being visible through the iris.

Aren't Johnny and Edgar Winter both albinos?  Yep,  I knew there was a reason I knew this crap...  LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Winter

Dennis

[BillT]

Now he would not sell me the black ones so I got 20 of the Albinos to grow out.

If my guess is right about what is going on, then the albinos you got should give a few black ones if you grow them up and breed  them.
I would guess the black ones would act as a normal black would in a dominant manner while the albino would be recessive. The blacks would be expected to be heterozygous. Two bred together would give 1/4 albino, 3/4 black 1/4 (of the total, 1/3 of the blacks) of which would be homozygous black.

If a transposon jumping out of the pigmentation gene lands in another gene and disrupts it, it could make a new mutation. That new mutation may also revert in a similar manner. Making a new mutation would be a much less likely event because moving out is one thing, but hitting another gene that will show a phenotype would be much less likely since there are a lot of other places it might land.