What is an axolotl?
Different types of axolotl
Can you have an axolotl as a pet?
If you find axolotls in the wild, they are usually tan or brown in color with some gold specks over their body.
This is a very good camouflage against predators. However, in captivity, you can find many more interesting colors that have been created in lab conditions by genetic engineering.
However, not all Axolotls have been created this way. There are still some which have been bred.
The color of Axolotls depends upon pigment cells called chromatophores. There are three varieties of cells.
The first is melanophores which have a darker pigment. They can be either black or dark brown.
Then there are xanthophores which have a reddish-yellow pigment and finally, there are iridophores that make the Axolotls look shiny and some can even glow in the dark.
Each of the pigment cells contains 14 pairs of chromosomes which give the different exotic colors. For this article, we will refer to the different colors as morphs as this is what they are called by experts.