Photo: Strange colloration

[Jeroen Spobeck]

I want do ask you guys for your oppinion. What do you think about these animals.. Is this a colloration (piebald?) ore maby a skin issue fungus ore something? https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e7c0...E49BD41AB13&id=E7C0FE49BD41AB13!356&sc=Photos

 

[Mark]

Hey Jeroen, the photo link says I don't have permission to view it.

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

Hey Jeroen, the photo link says I don't have permission to view it.

Hello Mark, Yes i have noticed it allready. But we maby allready have the anwer. Probably the animals are not well.. they have no eyes and strange markings on there skin.. first tought was piebaldism but my doubting on it is maby confirmed. (The discussion goes on the N&S facebook page.) but i can post a picture of it here aswell otherwise it would not be kind.

 

[Kaysie]

It appears like the patches are rather... granular? or thick?

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

maybe its some kind of Candida infecton, ore other nasty things are happened to these animals.

 

[Wild TONY appeared!]

I've heard of eyeless axolotls, but I've never seen a picture. From what I know, they are sterile, and the gene that causes it is lethal (at least that's what all of the literature I've read on the subject says.). These appear to be older than the lethal gene would have permitted. On a side note, it makes me a little queezy.

~Anthony

 

[esn]

The patches definitely look like something is "caked on"! I'd say that isn't natural at all. I've seen illnesses like that with other animals, but it's hard to imagine the cause of that for an amphibian... It almost seems like it would be hard to the touch. The "cake-like" layers with an infection I've only seen on mammals and avians, never herps.

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

@ Anthony - Yes those are more experimental animals. I believe i saw some pictures of those @ the ambystoma genetic center website.

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

The patches definitely look like something is "caked on"! I'd say that isn't natural at all. I've seen illnesses like that with other animals, but it's hard to imagine the cause of that for an amphibian... It almost seems like it would be hard to the touch. The "cake-like" layers with an infection I've only seen on mammals and avians, never herps.

Yes it realy looks unatural. Maybe they are burned ore electricuted, they even could have been leucistic on some pictures i have you allso see some pink comming up between cracks of there skin, leggs and under there mouth.. Nobody realy knows yet what this realy is.

 

[Olivia97]

Whatever it is they dont look good the poor things

 

[Bellabelloo]

@ Anthony - Yes those are more experimental animals. I believe i saw some pictures of those @ the ambystoma genetic center website.

When you say experimental, do you mean as in breeding? Or that they have been used for some sort of other research?

 

[CJ1981]

It looks a bit like they are covered in cold sores but can amphibians get herpes?

They certainly don't too happy or comfortable the poor things

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

When you say experimental, do you mean as in breeding? Or that they have been used for some sort of other research?

Yes mainly they are used for research

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

Evrything is oke after all. They are just freaks of nature.

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

some more ..

 

[Wild TONY appeared!]

Evrything is oke after all. They are just freaks of nature.

So were these the result of chance, or were they bred to be this way? I'm hoping it's so rare I won't ever have to run into one.

~Anthony

 

[SapphireTigress]

I'm looking at those pics and back to my axie...those pics make me so horribly sad

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

Yes anthony let me axplane the hole story. She went to a vet yesterday.The vet took samples of there skin, and the tip of there tails. The results where no bacteria, no fungus no illness but realy something diffrent. It should be a kind of somatic mutation. Its a spontanic mutation in the genes. The vet was realy anthausiast about these animals.


The first pictures where maken in bad light.it was no wonder evryone thought bad about these markings. I have recomment her to use the light on the camera. you clearly can cee the diffrences now with the new pictures.. Its a world of diffrence.

Shure the animals will not be used for the market.

 

[Azhael]

If you look closely, the patches follow the skin indentations and show the pores of the receptors. Since typically iridophores are produced in a more superfitial layer of the skin than other pigments, and they also look metallic which gives them a more solid look, it often looks like they are over the skin rather than part of it. This is readily visible in many species. I remember that in Notophthalmus viridescens it was very clear upon close inspection that the different pigments occupied different layers of the skin. It´s easier to tell in species that have a semi-transparent dermis like the notos, Lissotriton vulgaris, and the like.
So what these poor animals have is just an aberrant distribution and density of iridophores. This type of chaotic and random expression of the iridophores seems to be linked to the eyeless gene (or complex of genes).

 

[Jeroen Spobeck]

and some more,