Hey! I wont go into the fancy names of each colour gene axolotls can express (i'll leave that so someone else
) but i'll give you the basics. There are 5 basic colours...
White Albino
is a completely white axolotl with pink or transparent eyes. Albinism is recessive over the dominant wild type (they are more common unless you breed albino to albino), and golden albino is dominant over the recessive white albino. They have light pink/red gills
Golden Albino
Is a golden-yellow colour axolotl. They can range from light yellow to very bright yellow. They often have shiny lighter patches on heir body and tail. They will have yellow eyes. This form of albinism affects all the colour cells in the animal except the yellow, leaving a gold axolotl. They have red/pink/yellow gills.
Wild Type
This is the original wild axolotl colour and is theoretically the most common because it is the dominant gene, however with selective breeding all colours are available. They are speckled greenish brownish black in a variety of darknesses. Some can be a very light speckled brown and they range to almost black. note the natural shiny ring around the eyes. They can have purple/red/brown gills.
Leucistic
Is a white axolotl. It is not albino because it has dark eyes. You can have a normal leucistic who has the eyes of a wild type (dark with a silver ring around the outside) or a melanoid leucistic with the eyes of a melanoid (completely dark with no shiny ring). Leucistics have dark eyes because they still have the black pigment, although it is limited. This is why some of them have black freckles down their face and back! If you see a black and white axolotl it is probably leucistic. Best way to tell is look at its eyes
They have pink gills and sometimes dark gill stalks.
Melanoid
Melanoids have a hyper expression of dark pigment, making them completely black. Their eyes do not have a shiny ring, and look like little black dots. They are usually black but can range from grey to dark brown to black. The best way to tell is look at the eyes, if they have a shiny ring they are not a melanoid. Melanoid is also recessive over the dominant wild type. They have very dark purple-red or black gills.
There are also the funny colours that don't seem to fit into any category yet, like
olives or coppers have been appearing on the forum lately. They are rusty yellow with brown speckles and dark eyes, however their genes are expected to be linked to albinism. They have red gills.
and then there are the FREAKS,
Piebalds are an axolotl with large white spots on an otherwise normal coloured individual,
and
chimeras are a half - half coloured axolotl split down the middle, where embryos of two different coloured babies fused to create one animal. Both of these are very rare.
A single axolotl can carry multiple colour genes but will only physically express one of them. That’s why you can have so many interesting coloured babies from a breeding pair, colours that you wouldn't expect if the parents are carrying those genes.
i hope that made sense
