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Gemma the Chimera!

Bette

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If you haven't already, meet my very special axolotl! I was very lucky to get this rare color morph out of the very first batch of eggs from my female wild type Yoshi, and golden albino male El Dorado. She was hatched in early April 2014, and is already at least 7 inches I believe.

I am fairly certain that Gemma is a chimera, but it is possible that she (I think it's a she, anyway! Let me know what you think!) is some other unusual color type.

Whatever she is, I think she is so beautiful! I plan on having her bred in the future. Hopefully, this is possible and successful.

She has a great personality, and eats anything I throw at her. She loves red wigglers, as well as the pellets, and gets occasional treats of frozen blood worms.
 

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xxianxx

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I'm not sure it is a chimera, naturally occurring ones tend to be split down the middle lengthways, your axy looks like a patchwork one :)
 

Bette

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I'm not sure it is a chimera, naturally occurring ones tend to be split down the middle lengthways, your axy looks like a patchwork one :)

I really hope you are right! Wouldn't the chances of passing her unique color to offspring be much better if she is a patchwork/piebald axolotl?
 

xxianxx

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The same people seem to get chimeras quite often, so potentially there could be a genetic cause. If the axy is not a chimera its pattern will be easy to fix with some line breeding.
 

Spartacus

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She's potentially a mosaic, which is a combination of two cells into one (like a Chimera) but less perfect down the middle. So she shows two colour types at once, in a patchy sorta way. If she is, mosaicism isn't a breedable trait, but an accident during development, so hopefully she's not that! Just gorgeous
 

Bette

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She's potentially a mosaic, which is a combination of two cells into one (like a Chimera) but less perfect down the middle. So she shows two colour types at once, in a patchy sorta way. If she is, mosaicism isn't a breedable trait, but an accident during development, so hopefully she's not that! Just gorgeous

Thank you! I was wondering about mosaicism as well. Still trying to figure out if she is a he! I will have to post a few new pics.
 
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