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Question: Defective GFP or defective blacklight?

Ariel

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Last week I bought a 4 inch wild type Axolotl.
In the store it was labeled "GFP Axolotl (glows under black light)".
The one I chose specifically because it had shiny bluish green eyes; also it appeared very stressed (gills curled dramatically forward) but otherwise healthy.
At first she only hid among the plants and charged the sides of the aquarium at the smallest startle. After a couple days she has relaxed and begun to leasurely explore the tank. Her gills are still somewhat curled but signifigantly less that they were, they have also grown noticeably "fluffier". I'm wondering if they are a little stuck in that position from being in a stressful environment for so long. She seems healthy and happy otherwise and yesterday she gorged on some fresh salmon strips fed from my hand.
Here is my question:
I just bought a blacklight but when I set it up my Alolotl did not glow. I know very little about GFP, so forgive my stupid questions. Do they need to "absorb" light like glow in the dark plastic? Do the glowing proteins need to "mature"? Will it glow better as a full grown adult? From the pictures online it looks like they glow a bright green except for their eyes stay black. My Axie showed almost no glow except for a barely discernible shimmer near the anus; yet stragely the eyes lit up like bright little highbeams! I havn't seem any pictures like this, with only the eyes glowing under a blacklight. Are there different types of blacklights that will illuminate different areas?
If my Axolotl doesn't glow; I am going to return the blacklight. Should I hold onto it? Am I doing something wrong?
 

michael

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If it has emerald green eyes it a gfp. Wild type gfp don't fluoresce a lot due to the dark pigment of a wild type. You should be able to the gfp on the belly. Gfp is much more observable in gold, white, and leucistic.
 

Ariel

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Because the whole body is a dark olive color, it will not fluoresce even though it really is gfp?

Thank you for the explanation! I will return the light because I don't intend on getting another loltl.
 

Dragonfire

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Because the whole body is a dark olive color, it will not fluoresce even though it really is gfp?

Thank you for the explanation! I will return the light because I don't intend on getting another loltl.

Don't return the light usually the belly, spine, and the head a little usually glow a bit. My cousin Has a gfp wild type that glows in those spots maybe try a brighter black light
 

usafaux2004

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Wild GFPs are...underwealming. Even at 2", with thinner skin mine barely had spotted glow. Their 10" dad has a greenish/yellow tail during day light and its about the only thing that glows on him.
 

Boomsloth

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Obviously don't keep the blacklight on him for anything more than a few minutes as it is uncomfortable to the axolotl. My GFP wild type has a greenish tint compared to my other wild types but does not glow nearly as much as my GFP leucistic. As he's getting older his pigments have gotten darker and his greenish tint has faded a little.

The way to think about GFP and pigmentation is if you got yourself glow in the dark paint. With nothing else the paint will glow bright but if you slowly start adding regular brown paint youll notice it'll glow less and less.
 

Ariel

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Obviously don't keep the blacklight on him for anything more than a few minutes as it is uncomfortable to the axolotl. My GFP wild type has a greenish tint compared to my other wild types but does not glow nearly as much as my GFP leucistic. As he's getting older his pigments have gotten darker and his greenish tint has faded a little.

The way to think about GFP and pigmentation is if you got yourself glow in the dark paint. With nothing else the paint will glow bright but if you slowly start adding regular brown paint youll notice it'll glow less and less.

Perfect explanation! Ok. Yeah, I'm returning it. The one time I turned it on, she swam to the surface and stuck her head out of the water as if to inspect the new thing and then quickly swam down again into the plants. It was the only time I've even seen her swim to the surface since I got her; so since it caused "abnormal" behavior for her and was not that interesting to me, I see no point in keeping the light.
 

digitalxri0t

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Black lights tend to be stressful on them so it really is best to return it. I have a wild gfp and I just love her bright green eyes. Really no need for the light to make that stand out on yours :) the others are right though. Lighter gfps really light up like what I think you were expecting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Dragonfire

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Yeah my cousins wild type that glows on the head and spine a little is like a super light individual so that's probably why he glows I guess it's not that case for all wild types.
 
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