Do some GFPs glow more than others?

Martin21114

Martin21114

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Hello,

I have 3 gfp axolotls, all of which are about 8" long. When under blue LED lights (or a black light which I don't use because they hate it) I noticed they don't glow very much. The melanoid you can only see it in his eyes, same with the gold albino. The leucistic one has some patches that glow fairly brightly but most of his body does not.

Does the level of GFP vary between animals, or is it because they are not done growing? I have seen pictures of gfp leucistics where the entire body glows like the few patches on mine do. Just curious if that axolotl had a higher gfp amount or if mine will look like that one day as he matures.

Thanks!

Marty
 
They do all glow differently. I've seen some glow really brightly and some less so. I've only seen their backbone glowing though, never their whole body like in pictures. If yours don't glow very much now, they aren't going to get any better. These I've seen on babies.

Also, the dark skin colouring takes part in it because I've seen GFP wild types, but it's harder to tell because of their colouring.
 
I use good quality field black light (it cost 70$) and with the medium wave and short wave filter my cousins gold albino gfp glows really bright but with the long wave filter he glows less
 
It depends on how much the gfp gene is being expressed in the axolotl as well as any other competing pigments. a leucistic that has no pigment migration will glow better than a melanoid that has very dark pigmentation that effectively masks the glow from the GFP protein.
 
Fogwatch said:
Is there any way to tell how much they will glow when they are babies?
Click to expand...

I've heard on this site that they will not glow that much when newly hatched. I can only assume that it depends on how much the gene is being expressed (ie GFP protein produced). I would not put a blacklight to any axolotl especially babies every day to check their "glow." If the babies get too stressed they might stop eating. I've heard from numerous sources that GFP is a dominant gene which means that if you have one parent with it the chances of you having GFP babies by breeding it with a non GFP should be around 50%. If you get a clear plastic container and shine the blacklight underneath on a wildtype the glow will show better. I again say that its not something that should be done often.
 
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