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Volume 6 | April 2005

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By Ramona Osche
First published in the german guppy magazine "Guppybrief"

The designations in the table below are the scientific names and descriptions for color mutations.

All these descriptions developed without attention to her genetic and they are applicable to nearly every species. In the color breeding of reptiles, particularly snakes, these designations are used by everybody. Mostly the snakes have fantastic fantasy names but they were supplemented by their scientific names.

Picture of Fish Skin	Body Base Color	Designation	Description
-	super albino (aa[bb]rr)	albinism (total)	totally missing of every pigmentation, red eyes
-	-	albinism (partial)	partially missing of every pigmentation, colorless body with normal colored eyes or normal colored body with red eyes
	white (bbrr)	leucism/ flavism	partially missing of red and black pigmentation with normal or light colored eyes
	albino (aa)	amelanism	totally missing of black pigmentation (melanin), with red eyes
	blond / gold (bb)	hypomelanism	black pigments (melanin) are reduced by the half normal or light colored eyes
-	-	melanism	double so much black pigment than normal
	blue2 /asian blue (r2r2)	anerythrism	totally missing of all red pigments, eyes are normal colored
-	-	hypoerythrism	red pigments are reduced by the half
-	-	erythrism	double so much red pigments
	blue1 /european blue (r1r1)	axantism	totally missing of all yellow pigments
-	-	hypoaxantism	yellow pigments are reduced by the half
-	-	xantism	double so much yellow pigments

But one fact is the same in guppy as it is for snake breeding: both don't have a real albino, even if they were called so. Maybe that's because of these both breeding projects got her albinos very early and the people at that time (like often today) where irritated by the red eyes. But as you can infer from the table a real albino has absolutely no pigmentation / coloration. I still never saw those guppy. Our albinos are really amelanists.

They have absolutely no black pigmentation. All other pigments are unchanged and that's why the albinos show all other (light) colors like white, red, blue yellow and so on...

If they were really albinos they wouldn't show any color and I believe they would have become extinct because of that ;).

Therefore would be guppies with blond (gold) body base color hypomelanists, whites are leucists, blue1 corresponds axantism. Maybe the so called lutino (or wine red eye albino) is a combination of amelanistic body and hypomelanistic eyes, or, if you want so, a combination by partially amelanism and partially hypomelanism but that would be the same.

Maybe that all these stuff appears more confusing than our old body base color names and I don't want to continue my explanations. The snake breeders don't use the full scientific designations too but they put abbreviations behind the fantasy names. Like "amela", "hypomela", "leuci" and so on...

I believe it would be desirably that these precise names are used by the guppy breeders too. Nowadays there is no world-wide uniformly name for the "lutino" or "wine red eye albino" (stupid name) or for the gold guppy. In germany we call it "gold", the american breeders say "bronze" and the asian people know it as "tiger".

I think we have to find a new and more precise system because the guppy is a very mutation joyful species.

Wouldn't it be possible that the creator or discoverer of a new body base color give the fish the name and attaches the right abbreviations?

For example:

	blond - hypomela.
	white - leuci
	blue1 - axanti

and so on...

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