Albinism is a typical genetic defect seen inn almost any species of animal. It is only expressed, so that we can see it, on the rare occasion when that already rare gene is reinforced by being combined with the genes of another carrier of the gene. We can see it happen in almost any breed of fish or animal but unless you breed fish by the thousands, the rare chance of observing an albino in your own tanks will be a bit remote. On the other hand, if you have that single albino show up, it is a breeze to multiply and get more of them. An albino contains two copies of that recessive gene that is being expressed so each and every one of its offspring will contain at least one copy of the gene. If you take any of the progeny and breed it back to the albino parent, the result will be roughly 50% of the next generation being albinos and when bred to each other they will breed true for albinism. In two simple generations, you can have an albino line developed. That is much faster than fixing almost any other feature in a new breeding line.
If there is some weakness to that newly established line, you will need to cull it ruthlessly to remove the defective genes since all of the genetic material will have come from a very small population of fish.
Another way to improve the chances of a healthy line is to breed out to normal fish that are unrelated to the original line and then breed the new group of crosses back into your line. That way other genes, that may or may not be healthy in your line, can be mixed with unrelated genes in the later generations of fry and not see some of the quality deterioration that is often blamed on inbreeding.
Either of the methods, culling or outbreeding, can be used to improve your new albino fish line.
