Albino Species

[amitnarain]

Are all albino species of fish mutants?

 

[Toirtis]

It depends on how you define 'mutant'. All albino species of fish are displaying a recessive gene, which can be called a mutation only in the non-primary use of the term.

 

[amitnarain]

i mean man made in labs.

 

[Hrafnkel]

No. Albinoism (word?) is just a recessive trait. It occurs in the wild, albinos just don't often occur in the wild, or if they do, they don't live long because they stand out so much compared to the normal ones.

 

[mr86mister]

yeah, like it has been said...its a recessive trait in the DNA that lacks the color pigment of the fish, and it turns out to be a "whitish/yellowish/pinkish" color, its cool and you can find them once in a while at the lfs

 

[Hrafnkel]

Or in the case of some (Albino tiger barbs, albino cories) you can find them quite often.

 

[jrp1588]

Sort of off topic, but I saw a couple albino alligators down at a reptil park in myrtle beach...They looked really cool. They also had a 22ft long croc....How to relate this to fish......? Umm, in every alligator and crock pond they had thousands upon thousands of guppies and fiddler crabs.

 

[megladonsharky]

it is ressessive , my trouble with it is that these would nt live long if born in the wild...

 

[Hrafnkel]

my trouble with it is that these would nt live long if born in the wild...

...So? Why is that an issue with keeping them?

 

[Toirtis]

i mean man made in labs.

Not at all, but the reason albino specimens of most animals are not often found in the wild is that their lack of natural cryptic colouration/patterning makes them either an easy target for predators, or, if they are a predator, an easy target for larger predators and too conspicuous to be efficient predators themselves.....so they rarely last long in a wild envioronment.

 

[QTOFFER]

Another reason albinos don't last long in the wild: They have 0 tolerance for UV light, or bright lights in general. Often, they are blind, or have very poor eyesight. Their eyes are red because in the absence of a pigmented iris, light entering the eye bounces off the blood vessel-rich retina. I find red-eyed fish cool, but the red-eyed rats and mice kinda creep me out. 8O

 

[amitnarain]

lol. ok . i thought that all albino species were lab products. thanks for clearing that out for me.