Hypomelanistic Ambystoma mavortium mavortium (Barred Tiger Salamander)

As many of you know, I bred my Barred Tiger Salamanders in April and June this year. A few friends and I raised about half of the 2000 eggs and out of all of them we found one particularly special individual. It's Hypomelanistic (it produces very little melanin - the dark pigment in the skin). I believe it's also somewhat Hypoxanthic (relatively little yellow pigment) except for its bars. Anyhow, it's now about 20 cm long (8 inches) and showing signs of slowly metamorphosing. I recently spoke to a friend who lives in the locality where I collected my tigers and he mentioned (before I told him about mine) that he saw a few hypomelanistic individuals 2 years ago in the wild. Anyhow, here's our (hi Jaymes!) friend a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if it's male or female, but I have a feeling it's male.







My hope is to breed this individual in 2014 with one of its parents and see what happens! I expect this individual will be a silver color with yellow stripes after it loses its gills. You would be forgiven for thinking this is an Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum)! While I've heard of hypomelanistic Ambystoma mavortium, I've never heard of a hypomelanistic Ambystoma tigrinum, though I have seen albino Ambystoma tigrinum.

That looks beautiful. I'm surprised there haven't been captive bred offspring before!

Gorgeous! And the photos were not entered into the calendar photo contest?

The pictures are absolutely gorgeous, your achievement deserves high praise and the animal is certainly curious. I can understand the curiosity of seeing what would result of breeding back to the parents, but i have to say it´s quite sad that a species that has seen so relatively few successes in captive breeding is already being considered for unnecessary inbreeding and mutant selection. I´m not saying it´s the end of the world, i´m saying it´s unfortunate, but i´m sure nobody is surprised nor cares.

Amazing,very very beautiful.contrata

Glad to my baby looking so good! Amazing shots man.

Beautiful photos John! That is a wonderful specimen you have there. Keep us posted on the growth of this guy, cant wait to see what he will look like when he metamorphoses. Congrats! -Seth

usafaux2004 said:

That looks beautiful. I'm surprised there haven't been captive bred offspring before!

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They've been captive bred in Europe but not in North America. And I'm pretty sure you won't see a hypomelanoid one of these in Europe.

Jan said:

Gorgeous! And the photos were not entered into the calendar photo contest?

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I enter photos I like in the photo competition. Not necessarily those I think will win .

Azhael said:

The pictures are absolutely gorgeous, your achievement deserves high praise and the animal is certainly curious. I can understand the curiosity of seeing what would result of breeding back to the parents, but i have to say it´s quite sad that a species that has seen so relatively few successes in captive breeding is already being considered for unnecessary inbreeding and mutant selection. I´m not saying it´s the end of the world, i´m saying it´s unfortunate, but i´m sure nobody is surprised nor cares.

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I would ordinarily agree with you but as I stated earlier, this morph exists in the wild population at this locality. It's not "artificial" or a case of extensive line-breeding.

Neotenic_Jaymes said:

Glad to my baby looking so good! Amazing shots man.

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_Your_ baby huh?

sde said:

Beautiful photos John! That is a wonderful specimen you have there. Keep us posted on the growth of this guy, cant wait to see what he will look like when he metamorphoses. Congrats! -Seth

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Sure will Seth.

John said:

I would ordinarily agree with you but as I stated earlier, this morph exists in the wild population at this locality. It's not "artificial" or a case of extensive line-breeding.

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Oh for sure, but the reason why i consider it unfortunate is that this is almost certainly going to be just the seemingly inocuous beginning. As the bloodline spreads and more people manage to succeed with this species, other much less scrupulous individuals will make sure to take it further.

Stunning animal and photos!


Regards Neil

John said:

...........I enter photos I like in the photo competition. Not necessarily those I think will win .

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Fair enough....but these photos are quite likeable

John said:

They've been captive bred in Europe but not in North America. And I'm pretty sure you won't see a hypomelanoid one of these in Europe.

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There are hypomelanistic andersoni, tigrinum and californiense in Europe, so why not also mavortium?

Those gills! Absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to see what becomes of the little guy.

Fantastic specimen and beautiful photos !

thanks to share ;-)

What makes it so attractive is the mavortium yellow bars showing through before metamorphosis. The icing on the cake would be a neotenic variety.

John said:

As many of you know, I bred my Barred Tiger Salamanders in April and June this year. A few friends and I raised about half of the 2000 eggs and out of all of them we found one particularly special individual. It's Hypomelanistic (it produces very little melanin - the dark pigment in the skin). I believe it's also somewhat Hypoxanthic (relatively little yellow pigment) except for its bars. Anyhow, it's now about 20 cm long (8 inches) and showing signs of slowly metamorphosing. I recently spoke to a friend who lives in the locality where I collected my tigers and he mentioned (before I told him about mine) that he saw a few hypomelanistic individuals 2 years ago in the wild. Anyhow, here's our (hi Jaymes!) friend a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if it's male or female, but I have a feeling it's male.

My hope is to breed this individual in 2014 with one of its parents and see what happens! I expect this individual will be a silver color with yellow stripes after it loses its gills. You would be forgiven for thinking this is an Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum)! While I've heard of hypomelanistic Ambystoma mavortium, I've never heard of a hypomelanistic Ambystoma tigrinum, though I have seen albino Ambystoma tigrinum.

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Hi John he/ she is a beauty! Did you find out the sex and do you still have it?? I will be receiving a male hypo mel. I got him from Kevin Rhodes out of Lubbock. You may know him? I'm hoping to find a female for my little guy!?? Im asking Kevin to keep an eye out for a female. He has access to these guys and has seen this morph before. In fact he also acquired a Leucistic morph mavortium. I don't think it lived very long though. looking forward to hearing back!