Majora, missing a gill natural or bitten?

[modestum]

I was just curious if my little "majora" has a little genetic defect that led to 2 gills on one side are if one was bitten off before i got her/him. It does not look like there is a stump where a gill used to be. what do you think?

 

[Neil C]

Sure looks genetic to me.


Regards Neil

 

[helobed]

I would have to agree, if it had been bitten off I assume there would still be a major artery leading to the place it was. As there doesn't seem to be one I'd say genetic. (somewhere else on the forum I remember seeing an axie with 4 gills per side due to genetics)

 

[modestum]

Thanks, Thats what i was thinking! kinda like it!

 

[sillymoogle7]

It looks totally natural. Such a little cutie

 

[munchbunch]

I'd agree and say genetics.

What a beautiful Asymmetric axie!

 

[SanderB]

It does not look naturaly, but it looks indeed like a genetic disorder.

 

[jinian]

It doesn't look bitten to me. As a geneticist, though, I have to point out there's a third option. Almost every organism has some small anomalies that aren't based on the genome, but on which cells proliferated, lived, or died during development and growth, which is somewhat random. The prime example is the domestic cat's spots -- the general extent of the spotting is genetically determined, but precisely where the spots wind up is different even in genetically identical animals. (One major exception is the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, where every single animal has the same number of the same cells. Whoa.) So unless Majora has two gill stalks on both sides, which would be much more likely to be genetic, my guess is random developmental weirdness.

And I love the name! Maybe the next one can be Zora?

 

[modestum]

It doesn't look bitten to me. As a geneticist, though, I have to point out there's a third option. Almost every organism has some small anomalies that aren't based on the genome, but on which cells proliferated, lived, or died during development and growth, which is somewhat random. The prime example is the domestic cat's spots -- the general extent of the spotting is genetically determined, but precisely where the spots wind up is different even in genetically identical animals. (One major exception is the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, where every single animal has the same number of the same cells. Whoa.) So unless Majora has two gill stalks on both sides, which would be much more likely to be genetic, my guess is random developmental weirdness.

And I love the name! Maybe the next one can be Zora?

Thanks for the interesting information! Majora does have a tank mate named Zora (a wildtype)

 

[Shadow]

Have you named these from The Legend Of Zelda series out of interest? If so I love it! :lol:

 

[Linus]

Playing the Skyward Sword right now..

I have a larval tiger sal who had one gill branch bitten off by a tank mate, it's body responded by building a super gill where the injury was, this gill branch is longer and thicker than any of the others by far. It's kind of cool.