Albino ratfish

[CACAdmin]

Albinos (or any type of creature) are always intriguing to folk and a number of our members keep/breed a variety of albino freshwater fish. However, I gather albinos are rare in the wild and especially so in marine species. An aquatic and fishery sciences doctoral student found an albino ratfish in Puget Sound here on the west cost. The story here (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070924172949.htm)includes a photo in which you can see how entirely white it is. What I found interesting is that the eyes of this fish are not red but greenish.(I had assumed all albino fish had red eyes.)

[Melody]

An albino's eyes are red because the lack of pigment allows the blood vessels to shine through. In humans it normally doesn't happen because we have large eyes that offer enough opacity, so maybe that has something to do with this fish too. Haven't a clue really, but its an interesting observation.

I recently read that you can increase the occurance of albinos in fish by exposing the eggs to heavy metals (Wikipedia I think). If we see more albinos, it may indicate a high concentration of heavy metals in the water.:wideeyed:

I would not suggest this as a way to increase albino eyes in fish, incidentally, since it would almost certainly invite other damage to the developing fry.