Random question

Hello, I was just wondering about my Axolotl and have done some searches to find out about some things I have never thought about, I only realised yesterday that they sleep for example.

But, I was just thinking does any one know or have a theory on whether albino and laucistic?(sorry if spelling is bad)ever existed in the wild? I find it unlikely certain breeding over so many generations would not result in this. Or am I wrong in thinking albino and laucistic came about through selective breeding?

Hi Tom,

If I remember correctly what I read, the white axolotls come from a cross between an albino (female?) tiger salamander and an axolotl. The color variants would then be selectively bred.

I love this phrase, by the way: "searches to find out about some things I have never thought about".

-Eva

Oh, I see your point what I mean is I have spent all my time on their health and the water cycle that I have not had a chance to research character traits etc.

Lol Tom i sat thinking the other day, why dont they have webbed toes?

Freddie is so ungraceful swimming with all her fingers spread out, jazz hands fashion!

Then she swims straight into the side of the tank. lol

Mel

They are so un-graceful when they walk and swim my albino slithers her body like an eel to swim to the surface then darts back down and my white doggy paddles to the top and then just falls down usually on top of her!

blueberlin said:

If I remember correctly what I read, the white axolotls come from a cross between an albino (female?) tiger salamander and an axolotl. The color variants would then be selectively bred.

Click to expand...

That's just albinism, not leucistic.

John said:

That's just albinism, not leucistic.

Click to expand...

Thanks, John! I really am lousy with the subject of genetics.

-Eva

So how did leucistic come about, John?

I honestly can't recall. It may be described in "Developmental Biology of the Axolotl" but my copy is currently 3000 miles away from me.

Huh...I've never thought about this before. I'd love to know how the leucistic color came about as well.

I would imagine that color morphs cropped up randomly and/or partially in captive bred individuals and then were selectively bred for.

True Clawdate,
(Not Axolotl specific....because I know Johnathan feces as yet but....)
Typically they occur naturally on occasion in the wild but due to the lack of camouflage they have even less of a survival chance than do their normally pigmented siblings.
In the pet trade they are selectively bred due to their popularity. In some animals this can cause genetic weaknesses but normally they are fine if bred responsibly. :happy:

So, I finally got to my copy of Developmental Biology of the Axolotl (thanks for the suggestion, John!). According to the index, the word "leucistic" does not appear even once in the entire book. They only call them "white" axolotls. However, on page 129 in the chapter on "Color Variants", it says "The white mutant has been around for as long as axolotls have been used in laboratories (see Chapter 1)."

Chapter 1, Pages 5-6, says, "The impetus for the explosion of interest in the axolotl was the arrival in Paris in 1863, at the Natural History Museum, of 33 black and 1 white live axolotls... Only 6 of these 34 specimens (five males and one female) - supplemented with a live white specimen ("albino") later (November 26, 1866) donated by Méhédin - were turned over to Auguste Deméril for scientific study (Duméril, 1870a), and from these 7 came the many thousands of axolotls sent all over Europe (Duméril, 1872)."

That the description "albino" is used in quotes, maybe the white axolotl was not a true albino (unpigmented eyes) but a leucistic?

-Eva

Thanks Eva. Yes, they mean leucistic.