Heavily speckled leucistics

[Margie]

One of my breeding pairs produces a lot of young leucistics with black speckles. A recent batch produced several with even more speckling than normal. When I looked at a closeup of a couple of them, I saw several yellowish spots as well. Does anyone know how common this is?
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[geron]

Want!


Edit: I derp'd for a moment there. Quite a beautiful lotl coloration you have there.

 

[ladygodiva35]

Wow, I want some like that! Are u gonna sell those? I'd want one for sure!

 

[geron]

As for the question about how common they are: I have been lurking since I posted and cannot find any other pictures of other axies with those golden spots + being leucistic and having freckles like that. This link has some that fit bits and pieces of traits yours have.

I'm hoping someone else has some with this coloration as well.
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be.../f62-axolotl-gallery/88802-axolotl-haven.html

 

[usafaux2004]

Margie, do you have any baby pics?

I have some wildlites as I call them...they look like this:

 

[Margie]

Margie, do you have any baby pics?

I have some wildlites as I call them...

That's an interesting coloring! I wonder what we'd get if we crossed one of those with one of my speckled leucistics?

 

[usafaux2004]

That's an interesting coloring! I wonder what we'd get if we crossed one of those with one of my speckled leucistics?

It is. I assume yours looked like normal leucistics then? These guys are coming up on 4 weeks old, so any breeding is at least a year or so away.

 

[Margie]

It is. I assume yours looked like normal leucistics then? These guys are coming up on 4 weeks old, so any breeding is at least a year or so away.

Mine were speckled from early on. I didn't pay much attention when they were smaller because so many of my leucistics are speckled. But as they got bigger, it became more and more noticeable, so I asked a friend to take the high-res pictures so I could get a better look at them.

Here's a more typical example of my speckled leucistics and another specimen with the extra speckles.
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[usafaux2004]

Those two look like mine. Quite interesting. How old?

 

[Margie]

Those two look like mine. Quite interesting. How old?

2 months.

 

[zombieaddict]

Want!


Edit: I derp'd for a moment there. Quite a beautiful lotl coloration you have there.

I second this! Want!! I just love the little freckled leucistic that I got from you and a calilotl would make such a wonderful addition to my "Lotls from Margie" collection.

Ahem... But on a more serious note, I hope you share more pictures as these guys get older! I would really love to see how that yellow develops as those cuties grow!

 

[Margie]

... I hope you share more pictures as these guys get older! I would really love to see how that yellow develops as those cuties grow!

I'll have to be sure and do that!

 

[Geckogal]

The only other axolotl that I have ever seen with marking that remotely looked like that belonged to a member named Tephra


Super cute! I love freckles on axies. Definitely envious! Best of luck with such an interesting morph.

 

[Kaysie]

Genetically speaking, there's no reason why leucistics shouldn't have yellow spots. They still possess xanthophores. I've had a few that have had faint yellow splotches.

Spotting in leucistics is just a matter of how late the migration of color cells off the neural crest is turned off. In pure white animals, it happens very early in development and no color cells migrate from the neural crest. In heavily spotted animals, the genes are active (or inactive?) for slightly longer, allowing more color cells to migrate.

When you breed together two animals that are more predisposed to heavy spotting, it only stands to reason that their offspring would also be heavily spotted.

 

[AnimlEnthusiast]

Those would be cute mated together! Hopefully they are compatible genders!

One of my breeding pairs produces a lot of young leucistics with black speckles. A recent batch produced several with even more speckling than normal. When I looked at a closeup of a couple of them, I saw several yellowish spots as well. Does anyone know how common this is?
.

Margie, do you have any baby pics?

I have some wildlites as I call them...they look like this:

 

[Petersgirl]

I wonder, then, if the difference between what we dub 'Piebald,' and what we dub 'Harlequin' is actually just a greater expression of axanthphores? Piebalds seem to be white with a large amount of speckling, while Harlequins have to be both speckled and very heavily coloured (usually an orange colour) to be considered Harlequins.

That said, beautiful babies Tephra has Doodle, I believe, who has these special orange/yellow freckles as well as speckling. He's a very cute little guy.

 

[rachel1]

Both my Leucy juvies that were heavily freckled babies have visible yellow splotches. My camera isn't good enough to be able to take a good picture of them, though. Not sure if they will still be visible as they mature or not. They look much less freckled at 2 months than they did when they were tiny. I love the freckling down the spine-they look awesome!