Axanthic axolotls

[sara]

In the Developmental Biology of the Axolotl, there is a discussion about the lack of vigour and fertility of axanthic axolotls. Most other discussions I've run across talk about the axanthics as simply another pigment mutation without any reference to health or breeding problems. What information am I missing?

 

[john]

You mean why are axanthics not as vigorous? Well, apart from telling you that homozygous ax/ax animals suffer from health problems and heterozygous ones don't, there's not much I can tell you. I think scientific literature is very sketchy as to why exactly this is a problem in axolotls.