
Originally Posted by
Ra
I thought they were true albinos if they had the red eyes, mine has red eyes and so did the one I owned years ago.
Wrong there about Melanism. Melanism is when the animal has alot of dark pigment, so a melanistic frog would probably be more blue or seafoam green. Its the blue pigment that the albino frogs do not have, making them appear yellow. They are still albinos. SOme albinos have terra cotta coloration and light reds. They are still true albinos, but they are not albinos if they have black eyes, such as the leucistic mutants. Leucism and melanism are both completely different phenomena than albinism.
Albino Cranwelli are albinos. In simplest terms, the pigments blue and yellow make green and if you take out the blue you typically get an albino, if you take out the yellow you would have a melanistic blue frog and if you took out all pigment in the skin you would have white leucistic frog with black eyes and a clear belly. One could argue that the Samurai Blues are Melanistic and the black eyed mutants are leucistic. Hopefully these traits become established through time without genetic defects the way that the albino morph has. I have heard of more than a few instances of Albino Pacman frogs coming from Green parents, which would mean that the albino trait was in the family history, probably the result of breeding albinos with Greens. It would be cool if the blue form and the black eyed mutant could become established in the same manner.