technical term for pink convict???

[Sarah88]

Albinism is a lack of melanin, which means no dark colours, i.e.brown and black, and pink eyes. 'Albino' Oscars, with red/pink/yellow/orange but no brown or black, are albinos.
Leucism is a lack of melanin in the body, but the eyes are normal. Pink Convicts are leucistic.
Xanthism is an excess of yellow.
Erythrism is an excess of red.
Melanism is an excess of brown/black.

thanks for the info, yeah i knew that about leucistic and albino being about whether they had pink eyes or not but wasn't sure about xanthism, but having it all together like this is very helpful

 

[cchhcc]

Never done it before but I could try. You ever make it up this way? VA beach isn't that far.

Send Reagan a PM. He's sent fish to me before via the mail..... I mean the mailbox mail! Hahaha! He'd probably be able to give you a couple of tips, but basically with tiny little fish you almost can't go wrong (unless they freeze!).

 

[BlackShark11k]

Albinism is a lack of melanin, which means no dark colours, i.e.brown and black, and pink eyes. 'Albino' Oscars, with red/pink/yellow/orange but no brown or black, are albinos.

but "albino" oscars have red stripes and red hues, albinism is the complete lack of pigment. the red in the eyes (i think?) is just the appearance of blood.

 

[Toby_H]

Topics like this are usually cluttered with speculations and opinions which makes truly learnign rather difficult...

This is a good summary...

Albinism is a lack of melanin, which means no dark colours, i.e.brown and black, and pink eyes. 'Albino' Oscars, with red/pink/yellow/orange but no brown or black, are albinos.
Leucism is a lack of melanin in the body, but the eyes are normal. Pink Convicts are leucistic.
Xanthism is an excess of yellow. The term 'lutino' refers to xanthic birds.
Erythrism is an excess of red.
Melanism is an excess of brown/black.

Although Leucism is a "reduction" in "pigmentation", while (as described above) Albinism is a total lack of melanin.

Melanin is one of many forms of pigmentation...

So technically, all Albinos are Leucistic, but not all Leucistics are Albino...
In the same way all Greyhounds are dogs, but not all dogs are Greyhounds...

Lutino is a "common word", not a "scientific Word"... So Lutino is fine to use, but there is no way to debate if it is used "right". Lutino has most commonly been used to describe an unusually white animal that doesn't qualify as Albino. Which is generally either Leucistic or Xanthic.

The reason Albinos have pink/red eyes is that there is no coloration in them, and the blood in the vessels show through...

It is true that "Lutino" Oscars have pink/red/orange eyes... Standard Oscars also have Orange eyes. Since Melanin is required to produce red/orange coloration in the skin, "Lutino" Oscars are not Albino.

Personally, I would suggest that "Lutino" Oscars vary and some are Leucistic, some are Xanthanic and some are both... though it would take some high end testing to confirm this.


Edit/Add - Being Leucistic, Albino, Xanthanic, etc does not effect the latin name, so that doesn't change.

But common Pink Convicts are best described as having a reduction in pigmentation, thus making them Albino.

Though it is likely that there are Xanthism, Albinism and other mutations present within the species.

 

[dogofwar]

Sounds like you need to come up for a CCA meeting some weekend...

We have Juan Miguel Artigas coming from Mexico this year...

Matt

Send Reagan a PM. He's sent fish to me before via the mail..... I mean the mailbox mail! Hahaha! He'd probably be able to give you a couple of tips, but basically with tiny little fish you almost can't go wrong (unless they freeze!).

 

[Toby_H]

But common Pink Convicts are best described as having a reduction in pigmentation, thus making them Albino.

That is a typo...

But common Pink Convicts are best described as having a reduction in pigmentation, thus making them Leucistic.

Sorry about that...

 

[BlackShark11k]

thanks for the info guys!

 

[qguy]

Amatitlania pinkfasciata

 

[BlackShark11k]

Lutino is a "common word", not a "scientific Word"... So Lutino is fine to use, but there is no way to debate if it is used "right". Lutino has most commonly been used to describe an unusually white animal that doesn't qualify as Albino. Which is generally either Leucistic or Xanthic.

The reason Albinos have pink/red eyes is that there is no coloration in them, and the blood in the vessels show through...

It is true that "Lutino" Oscars have pink/red/orange eyes... Standard Oscars also have Orange eyes. Since Melanin is required to produce red/orange coloration in the skin, "Lutino" Oscars are not Albino.

Personally, I would suggest that "Lutino" Oscars vary and some are Leucistic, some are Xanthanic and some are both... though it would take some high end testing to confirm this.

wait... so an animal can have multiple color mutations at once? now that i think of it it seems pretty obvious.

would that make the "lemon" form of oscars both a lecustic and xanthic oscar? or would they just be xanthic?

with all the confusion about coloration with oscars it seems to make sense just to call them "lutino", even though it appears thats normally used for xanthic birds

hmmmm

 

[Aquamojo]

Took a little while for the response, but I did inquire with Dr. Paul Loiselle about the correct scientific designation for these fish. Here is his reply:

Dear Mo,

The aquarium strain of the convict cichlid is descended from founders collected from Lakes Atitlan and Amatitlan in Guatemala, the type localities of Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus. The pink convict is nothing more than an oligomelanic mutation of the convict cichlid. It made its appearance on the hobby scene long before the importation of any convict-like fish from further south, so there is no ambiguity about its species identity. You wilI note that I do not recognize Amatitlania as a valid genus. In my opinion, the species in question simply aren't different enough from the fish comprised in Cryptoheros on either the morphological or molecular level to justify establishing a separate genus for them.

Hope this helps.

Ho ela velona![FONT=&quot][/FONT] [FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Paul [/FONT]