A two-minute refresher on genetics.
Methods, Phase (2)
Methods, Phase (3)
An open letter to the breeders and distributors.
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If you have found your way to this page, you have sibships of juvenile mystery snails from both an ivory mother and a brown/black mother, probably from egg masses that you hatched yourself. If you have just completed Phase (1), you have already sent me a photo (or photos) documenting what this sibship looks like. If you skipped directly here without passing through Phase (1), on the other hand, I’d appreciate your sending me a photo or photos of whatever babies you’ve already got before going further.
(2.1) Mix your ivory babies together with your brown/black babies in equal proportions. Initially, this could be done in a single aquarium. As they grow, you may need to expand to additional aquaria.
(2.2) Keep track of mortality, keep the ratios of phenotypes even. That’s going to be a pain, especially when the snails are small, if you’re using a large aquarium full of pretty plants and sunken pirate ships and so forth. For that reason, if I were conducting this experiment myself, I’d be using smaller containers with simple gravel bottoms, like one-gallon “Kritter Keepers.” The point here is to maximize the likelihood of an ivory x brown/black mating, which hits 50% when the two phenotypes are in equal frequencies.
(2.3) What we are looking for at this step is ivory females laying clutches that include at least some pigmented babies. Exactly how we get to that result will be up to you. Ideas:
(2.2) Keep track of mortality, keep the ratios of phenotypes even. That’s going to be a pain, especially when the snails are small, if you’re using a large aquarium full of pretty plants and sunken pirate ships and so forth. For that reason, if I were conducting this experiment myself, I’d be using smaller containers with simple gravel bottoms, like one-gallon “Kritter Keepers.” The point here is to maximize the likelihood of an ivory x brown/black mating, which hits 50% when the two phenotypes are in equal frequencies.
(2.3) What we are looking for at this step is ivory females laying clutches that include at least some pigmented babies. Exactly how we get to that result will be up to you. Ideas:
- Maybe you can catch an ivory female laying a clutch and isolate that individual female and rear her babies.
- Maybe you prefer to wait until egg masses start showing up in the group tanks, and then isolate all the apparently-mature ivory snails in smaller tanks as potential mothers.
(2.4) Separate all clutches of eggs laid by ivory mothers, hatch and rear them following the techniques outlined in step (1.2).
(2.5) Count and score all juveniles using the technique outlined in Phase I steps 1.3 – 1.5. Although we are focusing on clutches that include at least some pigmented offspring, save pure ivory clutches as well.
(2.5) Count and score all juveniles using the technique outlined in Phase I steps 1.3 – 1.5. Although we are focusing on clutches that include at least some pigmented offspring, save pure ivory clutches as well.
Again, we will learn a lot together if we get this far in the experiment. But in the best of all possible outcomes, what we are looking for is a pure brown/black sibship born from an ivory mother. Under our hypothesis, those snails will be AaYySs triple heterozygotes. Which takes us to Phase 3.