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Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatian"


Hisserdude

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3 hours ago, dragonfire1577 said:

I have noticed your specimens appear to have more of grey spots while mine has quite dark spotting regardless of lighting, I also see patterns in many of yours where the spots are either smaller or there is connecting patterns spanning from one side of the body to the other at least to some extent while my specimen shows larger blotches without these connecting patterns. The gene may or may not be the same (I feel it likely is) but the populations being different likely has some impact, I will be treating this as at least a separate strain of the same gene until proving otherwise is possible. I feel we would need to see them side to side and compare then along with test breeding the two.

My "normal" looking individuals are starting to become lighter and lighter with each generation, they definitely aren't as dark grey as the first individuals I caught. It's hard to notice sometimes, and definitely hard to pick up on camera, but they are becoming lighter for sure, so the grey spots on my Dalmatians are probably also lighter than the spots on your strain.

There also seem to be several different distinct patterns going on in my Dalmatian population, so I could probably isolate several different morphs with selective breeding, but I don't have the space for that right now unfortunately.

Another interesting thing happening in my "normal" colony, is that a lot of light tan individuals are showing up, some with more orangish coloration, (I've isolated those to their own container), so in addition to the "normal" individuals getting lighter, the population is now full of these tan individuals too... I'm just gonna ride it out and see what odd color morphs come out of this genetic mix.

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On 8/30/2017 at 7:57 PM, dragonfire1577 said:

Sorry to revive a thread but I found one of these in my garden today and it's carrying babies, I'm certain its the same species and if it drops offspring successfully I'd like to see if ours carry the same trait. Mine was found In Connecticut.

Nice find for sure!  Good luck in reproducing this trait!!  I'd love to obtain offspring from both of your culturing efforts with this species!

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So update, I picked up a leaf the female was sitting on and a baby crawled out from under her! The baby obviously doesn't have visible colors yet but It's a start! I will be seeing how these offspring come out color wise and will be leaving them as a group and waiting for second generation offspring to see if they carry the trait.

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1 hour ago, dragonfire1577 said:

So update, I picked up a leaf the female was sitting on and a baby crawled out from under her! The baby obviously doesn't have visible colors yet but It's a start! I will be seeing how these offspring come out color wise and will be leaving them as a group and waiting for second generation offspring to see if they carry the trait.

Awesome, congrats! :D In a couple molts or so you should be able to tell whether they are Dalmatians or not, hopefully your gal produced some similar looking offspring! 

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6 hours ago, dragonfire1577 said:

Well I just confirmed there is at minimum 15 offspring.

Nice, congrats man! :)

My culture is booming right now, lots of medium sized individuals and tons of mancae now, (the individuals in my strain apparently reach sexual maturity at a smaller size than most other O.asellus strains in culture). Here are a few pictures of some huddled on a leaf:

O.asellusMGD%252312.JPG

O.asellusMGD%252313.JPG

O.asellusMGD%252314.JPG

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2 hours ago, Guest AlexW said:

Very tasty-looking.

The Dalmatians on bugsincyberspace only have a few pathetic white flecks, so I like them a lot.

Thanks! :D

Yeah, lots of Porcellio Dalmatians in the hobby are white with very few, tiny grey flecks, there aren't that many that I've seen that look like they deserve the name "Dalmatian", more like "White speckled" or something. I really like these Dalmatian Oniscus because they have a more balanced coloration between the white and the grey, (and even a little yellow here and there). 

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4 hours ago, dactylus said:

Beautiful cultivar of this species!  You have some great looking animals there Hisserdude!  :)

Thanks! :D

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16 minutes ago, dragonfire1577 said:

Awesome my babies have primarily molted once it would appear and are doing well

That's great, glad to hear it! :)

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  • 2 months later...

Update on my culture, the isopods all developed normal color resembling normal colored adults up until around 1/2 the length of an adult when around half of them began showing abnormalities, I have now noticed every molt they lose pigmentation and some have gained maybe 2 or 3 black spots and I also have some specimens who are very light grey especially towards the front half of the body. If all now oddly colored specimens keeps developing like this they could resemble my original female in a few molts. This could also mean these aren't the same gene but instead have a different one with similar end result. I will keep everyone updated.

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49 minutes ago, dragonfire1577 said:

Update on my culture, the isopods all developed normal color resembling normal colored adults up until around 1/2 the length of an adult when around half of them began showing abnormalities, I have now noticed every molt they lose pigmentation and some have gained maybe 2 or 3 black spots and I also have some specimens who are very light grey especially towards the front half of the body. If all now oddly colored specimens keeps developing like this they could resemble my original female in a few molts. This could also mean these aren't the same gene but instead have a different one with similar end result. I will keep everyone updated.

Doesn't look like they are gonna be Dalmatians man, though I could be wrong. I've had many offspring from normal O.asellus look like the individuals above, but they normally don't get much lighter than that. I've also had offspring come out bright orange at first, but as they get older they almost always turn a grey-tan color. It's possible they could become Dalmatians when they are older, but I highly doubt it.

That being said, they may still carry the Dalmatian gene, so their offspring could come out looking like Dalmatians, you never know!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/12/2017 at 10:57 PM, dragonfire1577 said:

Yeah I'm not sure, the middle one does have a black spot though and these at lighter than my others by a good amount who knows, most isopod morphs are recessive anyway

Thanks for the update.  It will be interesting to see what develops in your colony over the next few generations!  Good luck!!

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Yep, I'm closing in on generation 2 now with all the first gen offspring from the first male being near mature. The offspring from the second male are also getting close to developing color so I'll see what they look like and she is carrying offspring from the third male now. I have been switching males every time I find her carrying offspring to promote a larger gene pool in my colony and I will continue outcrossing this strain if it proves out, since so far all juveniles in the colony have the same mother and I am restricted to 3 males.

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I definitely would like to test breed and see if these two strains can produce dalmatian offspring too or if it's two separate genes doing the same thing. So as soon as I have mature adults showing visual for the gene I'd definitely like to get my hands on at least one or two males from your colony if possible.

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