I am new to playing Fish Tycoon, and have noticed that some combinations of fish result in an offspring having exactly the same characteristics as one of the parents. Is this normal? I was concerned that the version of the game I purchased might have a bug, but I also considered the possibility that the "genes" of one parent might be dominant over the other parent's genes. I'm not sure how far I can carry the scientific metaphor, since some offspring seem to have none of the characteristics of the parents.

I am having trouble breeding any magical fish. I downloaded Celebane's fish tracker (thank you!) and hope that systematically trying different combinations of fins and body types will do the trick.

yes, for each species (except one) and for each fin type(except one) there will be a combination with a different species that will generate the same species as the parent. For example, shark * catfish = shark. This will happen with only one other species. for example, with the catfish: catfish * arrowfish = catfish. This happens with fins too.

I thought this is how it worked too when I started ... but I think you have to think "maths" and "programming" not biology.