Question: Color rate in baby axolotls

Hello everyone ! I'm new to the forum and I wanted to say that I'm highly thankful to the creators of this website.
Anyways, I got a pair of axolotls a few weeks ago, they spawned and got dozens of babies (round 150). They are doing great and I think their life is between good hands.
My question is the following: As both parents are wildtype, and their descent seems to have 50% wildtypes, 25% leucistics and what seems to be 25% melanoes (spawn among which melano-leucs and other combinations reside too), I just wanted to have your point of view on the genes that carry the parents. Are they both wildtypes het leucistic het melano? Silly question, no?
And secondly, (if it's too complicated to answer/calculate, no problem) are the wildtypes 50% possible het or 100% het (or less) for leucistism and melanism? And the leucs for melanism? And the melanoes for leucistism?
Thanks a lot for the further answers, it is highly appreciated.
Greets from France to you all.

Lotl said:

Hello everyone ! I'm new to the forum and I wanted to say that I'm highly thankful to the creators of this website.
Anyways, I got a pair of axolotls a few weeks ago, they spawned and got dozens of babies (round 150). They are doing great and I think their life is between good hands.
My question is the following: As both parents are wildtype, and their descent seems to have 50% wildtypes, 25% leucistics and what seems to be 25% melanoes (spawn among which melano-leucs and other combinations reside too), I just wanted to have your point of view on the genes that carry the parents. Are they both wildtypes het leucistic het melano? Silly question, no?
And secondly, (if it's too complicated to answer/calculate, no problem) are the wildtypes 50% possible het or 100% het (or less) for leucistism and melanism? And the leucs for melanism? And the melanoes for leucistism?
Thanks a lot for the further answers, it is highly appreciated.
Greets from France to you all.

Click to expand...

My knowledge of genetics is minimal but the offspring of two wild type axolotls who are both het for a recessive gene would lead to 75% wild type and 25% recessive couloured young. Your results are more indicative of a wild type het for a recessive gene and a melanoid het with another recessive gene, you sure one of the adults is not a melanoid ? Or are you mistaking wild type babies for baby melanoids ?

Thanks for the fast reply. Well, I made kinda a lot of research as to the genetics and overall care and tips and color phases in axolotls (to finally end with a few websites and forums that I did not read). But I can still make mistakes.
I cast a light on the deep dark eyes of the supposed melanoids and no shiny rings could be seen (in comparison with the baby wildtypes that furthermore possess a marbled body). In addition, their bodies are kinda different from the wilds: a small lighter spot on the head as it seems to be in melanoid babies, and a deep dark/blueish body. I'm 95% sure that the parents are wilds.
You say 75/25, but if they carry two recessive genes, is the proportion of wilds altered by the number (multiplication) of het genes (so I would make a hazardous calculation of 25%x2, to bring the apparent 50/25/25... may be wrong). It will seem obvious that I quit maths for humanities...
I gonna re-calculate exactly the proportion of babies to be sure, but I thought this topic was really interesting as to future breeders (and myself ) that wanted to plan their breedings.
Thanks

It is hard to check melanism in very small axolotls , if you are only 95% sure the adults are wild types it casts a lot of doubt on your ability to differentiate the young ones.

Well it is because some doubt remain as it has temporally been long since I checked. But to answer you, I'm definitely sure the 2 are Wildtype. I checked on a calculating ball python genetics website I found and those are the results I had (adapting with two pure recessive, non-combining, genes):

Wildtype het. Melanistic het. Leucistic x Wildtype het. Melanistic het. Leucistic

6.25% 1/16 Wildtype
12.5% 2/16 Wildtype het. Melanistic
12.5% 2/16 Wildtype het. Leucistic
18.75% 3/16 Wildtype het. Melanistic het. Leucistic *
6.25% 1/16 Melanistic
12.5% 2/16 Melanistic Het. Leucistic
6.25% 1/16 Wildtype het. Melanistic het. Leucistic *
6.25% 1/16 Leucistic
12.5% 2/16 Leucistic Het. Melanistic
6.25% 1/16 Melanistic Leucistic



*** Wildtype : 5/10 ; Leucistic : 2/10 ; Melanistic : 2/10 ; Melano-Leucistic : 1/10
=> 50% Wildtype ; 20% Leucistic; 20% Melanistic ; 10% Melano-Leucistic

((( (First glance -> Wildtype : 5/10 ; Leucistic : 3/10; Melanistic : 2/10
=> First glance :50% Wildtype ; 30% Leucistic; 20% Melanistic) )))

(This is where a further doubt appears...)

Melanistic : 50% possible het. Leucistic
Leucistic : 50% possible het Melanistic
Melanistic Leucistic : 100% genes are known
???
Wildtype :
50% het. Melanistic
50% het. Leucistic
25% het. Melanistic Leucistic
25% pure Wildtype
???

Hope those results are not off-topic (and wrong, of course) and contribute to the better understanding of those little guys.

Lotl said:

(This is where a further doubt appears...)

Melanistic : 50% possible het. Leucistic
Leucistic : 50% possible het Melanistic
Melanistic Leucistic : 100% genes are known
???
Wildtype :
50% het. Melanistic
50% het. Leucistic
25% het. Melanistic Leucistic
25% pure Wildtype
???

Click to expand...

You might want to make your self clearer, this is gibberish and the percentages dont work out.

Right, got to have a go at the sums
If both parents are heterozygous for both melanistic and leucistic then given that both mutations are simple dominant traits and leucistic is epistatic to melanistic (in leucistics the pigment cells do not migrate away from the neural crest)
25% would be heterozygous for wild type (no leucistic allele) 50% would be phenotypically wild type but carrying a leucistic allele and 25% would be homozygous leucistic.
The same would apply to melanistic
But the 25% homozygous melanistics would be spread amongst the various leucistics. Only those individuals not homozygous for leucistic would display their homozygous melanistic state. So 25% of the leucistics would be homozygous for melanistic but you would not be able to see that (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!) And 25% of the rest (75%) would present as melanistic.

Fractions are easier!

So
Leucistic 1/4 (of which 1/4 would be homo melanistic but not apparent)
Melanistic 3/4 x 1/4 = 3/16
Wildtype 3/4 x 3/4 = 9/16

Phew!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks a lot for your answers.