Thread: Black nose crappie

Originally Posted by crappiepappy

Couple of questions :

1. How is it that the black stripe is a "dominant" trait, when the offspring of a Blacknose & a regular Black Crappie will not have a black stripe ?? Sounds more like a recessive gene trait, to me. And if it was a dominant trait, wouldn't most Black Crappie have it (the stripe) and the non-striped Black Crappie be the "odd" catch

2. When did this fellow say the Blacknose was discovered ? (what year?) The Florida F&W state that the first "discovery" was in OHIO in 1957 ( Fish and Wildlife Research Institute )

Hey CP, thanks for the questions, sorry it took me so long to answer.

1. I don't know if you know anything abuot genetics or not, and I'm no expert, but understand just enough to be dangerous. In response to your first question about dominance v. recessive, I don't believe that a blacknose and a black will not produce some blacknose offspring. In fact, they WILL produce some blacknose offspring.

Boiled down, there are two parts of genetics that play in a case like this where the trait (blacknose, or no blacknose), is controlled by a single gene. There is the phenotype which means what we see (again, either having blacknose, or not having black nose. The other part is genotype, or gene makeup, which is considerably more complicated.

For a single trait like this, imagine that each offspring gets one gene from each of it's parents. Possible genotypes for these crappie could be represented like this: BB or Bb or bB (same as Bb) or bb. Any of the crappie with at least one "B" will be blacknose, and only the "bb" crappie will be normal blacks.

So, mom and dad each have one of these configurations, and each will pass one of these to each offspring. Parents with the makeup of Bb and Bb, can produce young by taking one gene from each parent, with any of the four configurations of BB or Bb or Bb or bb, and will do so in ratios of 25% of each type. So, basically, you would expect two blacknose with the Bb genes to produce 75% blacknose (all of the "BB" and "Bb" fish), and 25% regular black crappie "bb". This is how regular blacks will continue to remain in this type of environment.

I think the problem was the assumption that a black and a blacknose that mate will not produce any blacknose. Instead, I believe that they will definitely produce some blacknose.

For more information on this subject with diagrams that make it easier, check here:

Punnett square - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


2. Actually I didn't say, but it was 1973. Again what I said, is that this was when the fish variant was described by scientists. This by no means indicates this was when the fish was discovered. I'm sure people have been catching these as long as folks have been fishing for crappie!

No problem, Ben.

I guess I should have known about the blacknose gene thing ... Magnolia Crappie have a male Blacknose parent & White Crappie female parent, and they come out with a black stripe. I just didn't put two & two together .... LOL !! Can't even remember where I heard that they had to both be Blacknose to produce a Blacknose offspring. I'll try & remember to not continue spreading that myth ... LOL !!

As to the "whens" of first caught or first scientifically described ... no blood, no foul .... LOL !! I just thought it was interesting that it was so long ago, and we're still hearing all these myths & misinformation.

Thanks for clearing things up .... !!

... cp