Question: What colour is my axolotl?

[jduff1109]

Have been reading the threads about olives, coppers and non-albino goldens. Can anyone help me identify the colour of my axi. Here are some pics:

 

[MereB]

A beautiful, male, Australian Olive. Love his colour! If you shine a light in his eye, you can see it in the pics if you look closely, you'll probably notice it's a dark red rather than black. That's a dead giveaway that it's an olive and not just a very light wild.

Coppers and Olives look quite similar but the base colour of the copper is more of a pinkish brown rather than the yellow brown of the olive.

Neil has a lovely Olive as his avatar and here's a post by him with some stunning coppers you'll be able to see them side by side http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...discussion-free-all/77237-another-copper.html

 

[kiathepooch]

He is gorgeous!


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.776159,-2.381413

 

[ZoeT94]

Definitely a he!

 

[yellowpebble]

i always thought that was a copper colour because well, its more copper coloured and the pinky is more olive?

 

[Neil C]

Unfortunately there is much confusion surrounding the naming of the various colours of Axolotls available in the Australian pet trade. I'm afraid I must admit to some of this through my posts but only through ignorance and not intention. Most of the confusion lies in the fact that axolotls are usually called "Olives" by pet traders if they don't fit into the usual categories (black,white,golden etc).

Most but not all of these animals usually end up being what in Europe are know as Coppers (most probably T+ Albinos). These can range in colour from as dark as the one shown in the photos above to as light as some of the ones pictured below. These all seem to have obvious red eyes and possess irdophores and are most commonly a caramel colour. There are also a slighty smaller number of individuals which are more of a greyish/purple colour, have fairly regular spots and possess the red eyes but do not appear to have irdophores. It has been speculated that they might possibly be a further mutation of the Copper. A photo is also shown below as an example. I've often called this colour a Copper as I have not known what to call them and they are albinos. Hence some confusion.

Also adding to the mess are individuals that look like coppers but do not have the obvious red eye (see my avatar). These might still turn out to be albinos but I have not had the chance to breed any of these so I'm not sure (would have to be a female to know as soon as the eggs where laid). There are also albinos that don't really fit into any of the categories describe above which can also be sold as olives. I've attached photos of two other females that have given me white eggs this year. So all the axolotls pictured below are albinos but not as you would expect an albino (white/golden) to appear like.

I would class the individual pictured above as a Copper as in fits best into that category. I hope someday that the genetics of some of Australia's colour variations could be study and we could give some of these forms their correct names. Hope this post has help clear up a bit of confusion and not made things worse.


Regards Neil

 

[iSuzie]

So i have always thought my female was a copper, she laid white eggs not long ago, breed with a golden albino. They turned out to be half golden albino's and the other half coppers/olives, darker more brownish coloured with red eyes, and yellowish brown with red eyes... Now Im not sure if my female is copper or olive.. And have no idea witch of the baby's are going to be copper or olive... Ill attach a photo of my female, she looks just like a dark copper to me... Or as far as I was aware.. lol...

How do I tell the colour types apart.. as I'm completely confused! haha

I'll attempt to get a good photo of the baby's... but as of yet my camera will not cooperate

 

[Neil C]

I think they should all be called coppers if they possess iridophores, are some kind of albino and vary in colour from very light to dark brown. I don't really know if the term Olive should be used at all. If they are olive coloured but not albinos then they are probably wildtype (with iridophores) or melanoid (without iridiophores).


Regards Neil

 

[yellowpebble]

i have a copper almost identical to the one in neils avatar, with black looking eyes and he is definatley an albino

 

[MereB]

There seems to be a lot of confusion about just what the colour we call copper looks like.
This might help.
Copper is defined as a Reddish brown colour
Whilst Olive (brown) is defined as a yellowish-brown to yellowish-green colour

(uses official Hex#'s)

They are very different Colours to look at so should axolotls not be named accordingly?

No one really seems sure of the absolute genetics of the coppers and olives and they do seem to share an awful lot of the same characteristics. Both are albino, it seems both can have iridophores and both will have the dark red eye you would expect from a T+ albino.
They seem to differ though in their expression of xanthic (Yellow) cells with them being much more obvious in the individuals that we know as Olives in stores here with them displaying a yellow-brown base colour. I suspect though that the presence of this gene in 'Olives' IS the difference between Olives and their European counterpart, the good old Coppers.
Maybe Coppers and Olives are the same colour morph (which I doubt) BUT the presence of yellow is a fairly easy line to draw.

Ultimately though if you wanna call your olive brown coloured axie a copper and vice verse then by all means do so it's entirely up to you :happy: After all I don't think they really mind what we call them as long as there is a big juicy worm in it for them at the end of the day :rofl:


Probably reads very badly so I apologise for that but I'm out of editing time.

 

[yellowpebble]

Just thought i'd ad this:

Caudata.org - Member Galleries - Olive taking a swim

beautifull photos of what i always thought of as typical copper colouring. Ironicly the axolotl's name is Olive o_o