How do you breed for HM?

[DoberMom]

I've been doing a lot of research on tail types and genetics. HM are interesting in that breeding an HM to an HM does not produce 100% HM fry. In fact, a lot of the information I've been reading says to be happy with 10%. Ok so the question is, is it only possible to get HM fry by breeding HM parents? Will a delta tail only produce delta tails? If an HM were to be bred to a delta tail, would any of the fry be HM? Or is it a waste of time breeding the delta tail to an HM if I want HM fry? I have not found much information on this subject. Thanks in advance.

[indjo]

It depends on their genetic background. If they were from a good solid HM line, then those DeT will produce a good number of HM. But if they're more of a round tail with wide spread, big chance that you won't. Another way to look at it is from the rays. 8 ray HM should give you 4 ray HM's if bred to a 4 ray DeT.

I truly believe that the female plays a bigger role in form. So get a really good looking HM female. She should give you HM fry.

[BeckyFish97]

As long as you know the genetic background for your boy is solid HM for a few generations then you shouldn't have a problem breeding HM x HM.
In HM spawns you will always get a few delta or super delta tails and that cant be helped!
If you were to breed a HM x DT and the dt carried HM gene so for example if the DT had 2 HM parents then the chance of more HM fry would improve slightly!But you will never get (or in my experience) more hm fry in a DT x HM spawn than you would in a HM x HM spawn!

[bettaboyshiva]

I've known guys who bred hmpk of the same colour as the female of just regular HM or vice versa to improve their fish quality and it worked all the fry looked HM jus some had shorter tails..but never the less all were HM.

[tpocicat]

I bred a delta female to my male HM, and got mostly super deltas and a couple HM's.

[MrVampire181]

I've produced spawns with mostly full HMs from crossing to HMPK.

[DoberMom]

Wow... This is really interesting. Thanks for all the help. I'd like to breed my HM male with one of my HMPK females. I'll post pix later but the info will help me pick who I'll breed with him.

[Sena Hansler]

Also, some breeding for a certain look or color may need line breeding, or breeding the best fry of each spawn to achieve what you want Especially if you are working with an unknown background HM