Dark female laying white eggs!!!

[Neil C]

A dark female of mine, who lived in a tank to herself, recently started getting very restless. She would always be at the surface and constantly swimming up against the glass as if she was trying to get out of the tank. This is usually a sign of poor water quality but the water seemed fine so I thought she might like some time in a tank with a male. The following photos are the end result, she has calmed right down again and is now swimmimg nicely around on the bottom. We know that the "Coppers" is Europe and some other non albino looking axolotls in Australia also lay white eggs but the colour of these eggs surprised me.You almost couldn't get a darker looking axololt apart from maybe a melanoid! Anyway I'm guessing that the genetics of Australian axies are even more messed up than in the rest of the world.

The first photo is of the female pre-egglaying, the second is of her laying an egg and the last is her having a well earned rest. The gravel has since been taken out as it was only added for somewhere for the male to attach his spermataphores. It'll be interesting to see what colours come out of the eggs. I'll keep you posted.


Regards Neil

 

[Kaysie]

I had just guessed in another thread that coppers are a/a...

 

[yellowpebble]

yeah, even though she is dark she is definatly copper. She is the right yellow spotty colour and has the right type of eyes. They must be a/a because of the eggs and the 50% ratio of albinos i got when my copper male had babies with a melanoid.

 

[yellowpebble]

I am still puzzled as to how an albino can have such brilliant colours! o_o amaing.

it would be interesting to breed 2 copper axies and see if they all came out copper or a mix of copper and normal albino.

 

[SludgeMunkey]

There are a number of types refereed to as albinos, though in reality they may or may not be true albinos. In axolotls in particular it seems to me, there is a vast number of "albino subtypes" which frustrates my very literal mind as I feel if it has any sort of pigment, it cannot be an albino. (Though I am a bit of an elitist jerk...)

True albinos lack all pigmentation. To the human eye they look completely pink/white, almost translucent, with the pink eyes. Many are nearly transparent around the abdomen to near adulthood. These are properly referred to as Axanthic Albinos. Truthfully, I have never seen a true axanthic axolotl personally, other than in pictures.

Xanthic albinos are technically not albinos (taking the literal definition) as while they lack other pigment, they still posses xanthophopres and iridophores. Xanthophores are the "Yellow" color, Iridophores are the prismatic or metallic looking color. This is how you get yellow axolotls with shiny snowflake flecks.

White albinos lack all the pigmentation except for iridophores. They look like an axanthic albino untill the light hits them just right, then you can see the sparkling irridescent effect (especially in the gills and the lateral portions of the tail). The amount of iridophore reflection varies greatly, with some animals having it barely visible. Personally, this is the "albino subtype" I see most.

Coppers, as they call them down under, are albinos bred to have unusually high counts of iridophores and to an extent, a decent crop of xanthophores. In other words they are very, very dark xanthic albinos. I wish I could get these here in the States. I have drooled over their beauty for years.

Melanoid albinos make things even more frustrating as they are albinos ventrally, but xanthic dorsally. The only one I have ever seen is the one pictured on Axolotl.org, which makes me glad, as I suspect that me be the exact type to push me so far off the deep end I will grow gills and develop a predilection for chopped earthworm...

Leusistic axolotls, are not albinos at all, though sometimes they are sold/called green-eye albinos. This is a completely different type of pigmentation that yes, sometimes makes the all black eyes look dark green or metallic green.

Last but not least, I should mention GFP albinos. They can be any of the above, but carry the Green Fluorescing Protein gene originally spliced in by a lab. Since this protein fluoresces in UV light, even in normal lighting, they can have a yellow-green look about them. I actually know one instance of these being sold as "green albinos" and another as "true green axolotls".


What really blows my mind is that when in breeding condition, they all get dark toe tips. How can you get dark toe tips in an albino?


So to really blow your mind, my original breeder female (dead after a long life) was a xanthic albino that laid dark eggs, even when paired with another xanthic albino male. Paired with a leucistic male I had (and only him), she laid white eggs. In both cases, wild types and dark sub-types abounded. To this day, I never could comprehend how that could be so.

 

[Neil C]

Thanks for all your replies and a very detailed run down on the various types of albinos around. Makes some interesting reading and the female changing her egg colour depending on what male she was paired with is confusing to say the least. Many thanks again.


Regards Neil

 

[yellowpebble]

what colour was the father, neil?

 

[Neil C]

You can see him lurking at the bottom in the second photo, a sort of spotted tan I guess.


Regards Neil

 

[yellowpebble]

it looks like he is a 'copper' too... please update us on the colours of the babies!