Leucistic eyes

I'm curious to know if leucistic axolotls can have the shiney eye ring ? thanks

Good question ~ I'm not 100% sure and look forward to hearing what other members have to say. But, my understanding is yes, and Melanoid Leucistics have completely black eyes.

all axolotl have the shining eye-ring, except the melanoid Axolotls. If an axie has none shining eye-ring, it`s a sign for that it`s a melanoid axie, regardless of the axies color.

Leucistic only means, that it is a white-colored axie.

Hi Slimer,

Leucistics have the reflective eye ring. The genes which affect their colour, is a developmental one, meaning that they can still produce pigments but not all the pigments can migrate and be expressed.

Melanoids do not have the eye ring.

http://axolotl.org/genetics.htm

Cheers.

To be clear (as pea soup), melanoid leucistics can lack a shiny eye ring.

I think Callina and Phil's combined posts answer it best. Leucistics are white axolotls with dark eyes. A 'normal' (read: non-melanoid leucistic) will have a shiny eye ring. But melanoids can be any color: brown/black/grey, albino, or leucistic. All melanoids lack shiny eye rings, regardless of their color.

So your leucistic COULD lack a shiny eye ring, if it is also melanoid.

There are two genes which can cause a leucistic to lack the shiny ring in the eye. One is the melanoid, the other is axanthic. People use the shiny eye ring to sort out dark normals from melanoids without the problem of axanthic because nearly all dark coloured axanthic axolotls fail to thrive and die small.

Axolotls which are "just" leucistic have a very easy to see shiny eye ring. If they have black eyes with no sparkle they are also melanoid or axanthic, or possibly even both.

Is there any way to determine if the Leucistic with no shiny eye ring is either a melanoid or axanthic ? From what i take from reading the genetics page on the axolotl site regular melanoids and axanthic look the same, dark skin ,no shiney .so how do you know which is which ? thanks

the difference between melanoid and axanthic axolotls are:

Melanoid axies are only missing the shining pigments (iridiophores). They look like a normal wild-type or leucistic (white) axie without the shining eye-ring and shining Pigments on theire bodies. There is no glamor, glance? on their skin.

Axanthic axies are also missing the yellow Pigments (xanthophores). The wild-types mostly are dark grey and the white ones are really white and they have no shining pigments.

You can see the difference best, when they are still young. Non-axanthic larvae, especially the white ones (leucistic) have yellow points on their backs at the neural crest. Axanthic larvae are missing them.

But most of the axanthic axies will die before they reach sexual maturity.

Re: axanthic axies

So do the normal non melanoid / non axanthic Leucistics have shiney spots on the body too other than just the shiney eye ring ? I haven't seen any but is it possible ? Also any one know why axanthic axies die off ? I tried to do a search through old posts here but didn't come up with much. thanks

Hi Slimer,

The colour of axolotls is dependent upon pigment cells called chromatophores. These cells are melanophores (containing eumelanin, a black-brown pigment), xanthophores (containing carotenoids and pteridines, yellow and reddish pigments) and iridophores (containing crystalised purines, which impart a shiny iridescence).

Non melanoid axies can have shiny pigments on their bodies. Try looking around the gills and around the tail, in my experience, they tend to accumulate around these areas.

I can see your interest in colour genetics, so i have attached some links for you to look through in your leisure.

http://www.axolotl.org/genetics.htm

http://www.ambystoma.org/AGSC/strains.htm

http://www.ambystoma.org/AGSC/mutantslist.htm

The axanthic mutant is characterized by the absence of xanthophores and iridophores. Melanophores are normal, and otherwise wild-type animals are uniformly dark gray. Dark axanthic axolotls are not vigorous, and Frost reports a susceptibility to viral infections (Frost et al., 1986). Axanthic animals also homozygous for albino (a) are hardy animals. Older axanthic albinos are pale yellow, apparently due to riboflavins in the diet (Bukowski, et al., 1990).

In view of the above literature, i hypothesise that the axanthic gene is 'selected' or 'carried' concurrently with genes that affect immunity, particularly to cell mediated immunity against viral infections.

Regards.

Thanks Rayson .