Lisachromis posted the following in another thread:

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I tend to dislike these terms, as they are used primarily by bird breeders. Fish are not birds, traits are inherited differently and the expression of color occurs differently than it does in birds. I would prefer not to recycle their terminology. What's more, those terms carry no scientific meaning any more than Snakeskin Guppy or Koi Swordtail.

As I have said before, it would be great if we knew the genetic makeup of all the color varieties. We could then express the form with the actual genetic traits. However, there are things we can look for to give us hints as to how the traits have been inherited, and how to accurately label them.

A true leucistic gene in fish is the Opaque character of Betta splendens. It actually produces abnormal levels of white pigment. This seems to be a very rare trait.

The incomplete removal of melanophores is more correctly termed oligomelanic - literally translated, reduced black. This applies to the Pink Convict and the White Swordtails I recently obtained. The melanophores are reduced to only the eye, but they are not completely eliminated as they would be with the gene for albinism.

BUT, it gets more complicated than that. Red Devils, for example, have a different gene that ends up with the same effect. It just doesn't display at birth. The question becomes, why the delay?

Then there is also the environmentally produced effect, such as raising Angelfish under a 24hr light cycle, which eliminates their stripes completely! That study was published in The Aquarium magazine back around 1970. However, this isn't expressed the same as the oligomelanic types, so we have a clue to it's origin.

True Xanthic fish may have red eyes, or they might not. However, they do have abnormal xanthophores, which, like the abnormal melanophores of black, speckled, or marbled fish, cannot contract. The reason some have red eyes is most likely a developmental characteristic of the trait: as they grow, resources are put into xanthophore production before, or instead of, normal melanophore production. However, there are lines, such as Gold Dust Mollies, where some of the normal melanophores still form in addition to the abnormal cells.

The only actual Red fish with Red eyes that I am aware of is the Red Albino Swordtail, and that has red eyes as the result of the gene for albinism. So it is an albino, but is also erythristic. It has abnormal erythrophores, but then, so do common Red Swordtails with black eyes, as a result of the same genes. So Red Albino Sword is a combination of two traits, from two separate pairs of genes. I hate it when people call them "Red Eyed Red Swords".

This is just a start. Let the Royal Rumble begin!

I have raised show pigeons for years and I have never seen an Albino pigeon,and in all my books on pigeons ,have only found three mentioned.Birds are completly opposite of fish,genetically,so you cannot use the same terms.
I have a strain of albino Guppies that get solid red with age.

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