Golden axolotl

[HayleyK]

I know there are many different types of golden axolotls but I usually see orangey axolotls with white spots, reddish filaments and albino eyes.

What type is it considered if they are yellow. I mean lemon-yellow body, hardly any spots, yellow filaments and albino eyes? They are strikingly beautiful and would love to have one? Are they common?

 

[Kaysie]

That's probably still a golden albino. Like wildtypes, they can come in a variety of shades. It could have another color 'overlay', like melanoid too.

 

[HayleyK]

I gathered it was still golden albino I was curious as to what makes them have yellow filaments rather than the red. I don't really understand genetics much do you know how common they are? Like how black brown wildtypes are more common than the copper wildtypes even though they are wildtypes. ( I think?!)

 

[HayleyK]

This is the kind I would love to have but have never seen them for sale or in any pictures on this site that I can find

 

[auntiejude]

Genetics is a complicated subject, and it's a question of how commonly distributed the genes are as well as the dominant/recessive issue of the genes.

I would guess that breeding stock in Australia is limited due the the import issues, so if there isn't the adult stock for golden albinos you won't find many ofspring.

I'll give you an example:
My 2 wildtypes have produced babies. The babies are wildtype and albino. Therefore both my wildtype adults must carry the albino gene, since it is recessive. But I already know that albinos are fairly easy to come by over here, so the gene is common, but still recessive.

However, you can't get GFP axies in the UK, (they are illegal due to their genetically modified staus) so no matter how many babies I raise I will never get a GFP baby because the gene does not exist in the breeding stock in the UK.

So it may be that the 'gold' gene just doesn't happen to be in the gene pool in Australia.
Does that make sense?

 

[HayleyK]

Yeah that does make a lot of sense, but there are a fair few golden albinos but they're the more orange with red ears. Do you know what makes them yellow instead of gold?

 

[auntiejude]

Again, it's just a matter of genetics of variation in colour. Keep looking, one will turn up eventually.

 

[Petersgirl]

There is also an albino type that gets more 'yellow' with riboflavins in its diet - the axanthic albino - but this goes yellow with age rather than gold. And it would still have the pink gills.

But the Golden does come with two variations in gene - D/D a/a or D/d a/a (where D is dominant dark, d is white and recessive, and a is albino). D/D a/a is a 'dark' albino and is probably closer to the beautiful 'lemon ice pop' colour that axolotl has than D/d a/a, which is still dark albino but carries the recessive white gene too. Either way it's probably the result of selective breeding. Here's the page I used for that info: Axolotls - Genetics and Colour

I may have got that wrong as it's a bit of a guess, but I think that colour is stunning too. I always think of it as a lemon or pineapple ice pop colour.

 

[HayleyK]

I always see it as a banana I knew it would probably be a long shot of finding one so beautiful.

Thanks guys!

 

[Petersgirl]

I did just have an idea though - don't some darker varieties of axxie have gold gills and eyes? I know Wildtypes can have gold rings in their eyes. Maybe it's Wild genes that have produced the lovely eyes and gill fronds we see on this one - after all, Wilds can have iridophores. Then again, axanthic genes produces yellowness, so it could be those as well.

I wish I knew But they are beautiful! I would love to have one and call it Lemon Pop
(Either that or Lilo, because she always makes me think of Hawaii, which makes me think of pineapples!)

 

[oceanblue]

The picture you included in post 4 looks to me like an "ordinary" golden albino, there is actually quite a bit of the glittery iridophores on one leg and it is amazing how different pictures can look if you change the lighting. Flash produces masses of sparkle, diffuse light a more subdued lemony look.

The golden albino is the pattern of expression of the albino gene without any further modifiers ie no melanin pigment, iridophores and xanthophores both normal. Axanthic albinos may go a little yellow due to riboflavin accumulation but I doubt that they are the shade you seek! Axanthic literally means without yellow, but when it comes to genetics you have to remember things are not always quite what the words really mean, after all albino means white!

Near white albinos are expressing either leucistic, melanoid or axanthic as well as albino. Gill colour is dramatically influenced by activity. Axies uncomfortable at the top of the temperature range in a pet shop will have bright red gills, as will an excited feeding healthy one. A relaxed resting axolotl may have pale gills.