I see what your asking and their is not an easy answer.
I think it really depends on the recessive trait, what does it actually do to the animal. Pattern recessives like clown gstripe or pied I think have really no boundaries on them. they really don't change too much with the animal besides the pattern, which usually makes them more visually appealing.
now things like albino take a little more planning, they remove a lot from the animal so you have to keep in mind your end goal, what are you hoping to produce.
now when you finally figure out when is a good time to add your recesssive trait to your project, I think the best way to go is with a recessive female with as many other genes for your project as you can afford. Reason being the female lays eggs, makes het babies, the males can breed in less than a year if eating regulatory and you can breed him back to mom with the chance of producing recessives visuals. If you went the opposite route with a recessive male, you would have to wait 2-3 years for a female to be mature enough to breed the original male back to the females with a chance of producing visual recessives.
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