Document Type

Article

Publication Date

December 2008

Abstract

Of the numerous subtropical and tropical freshwater speciesof  fish,  labyrinth  fish  are  among  the  most  varied  in  bodymarkings and colouration patterns. Four taxonomic families(Belontiidae, Anabantidae, Helostomatidae, and Osphrone-midae)  of  the  suborder  Anabantoidei  comprise  the  ‘tradi-tional’  labyrinth  fishes,  a  group  of  about  80  African  andSoutheast Asian species (Linke 1991).  These Anabantoidsare popular with aquarists due to their interesting reproduc-tive behaviours, with males of most species brooding eggs intheir mouths or in floating bubble nests (Vevers 1980; Linke1991; Axelrod and Vorderwinkler 1995; Mills 2000).  Theyhave also been the focus of genetic, environmental, and mor-phological studies (Sommer 1982; Gosline 1985; Klinkhardtet  al.  1995;  Wakiyamaet  al.  1997;  Frankel  1992,  2001,2005).The honey gourami,Trichogaster chunaHamilton (Os-phronemidae), is a popular labyrinth fish due to its peacefulnature, and the bright and attractive appearance of sexuallymature males.  As a result of ongoing work on the inheritance of coloura-tion and banding patterns of teleostean fishes (Frankel 1992,1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005), studies on the modeof inheritance of the ‘yellow’ colour variant inT. chunawereundertaken.  The segregation patterns observed in the maleprogeny from fifteen different crosses are consistent with ahypothesis that the inheritance of these colour phenotypes iscontrolled by the action of a single, autosomal locus actingin a sex-limited fashion, with dominance required for the ex-pression of the characteristic red-orange ‘chuna’ colouration.

Download

Share

COinS