Well, I finally got us an answer from the horse's mouth--Sean Stewart, who was kind enough to write back to me about this morph:



"The splashed back dart frog was named galactonotus or 'milk-back' for good reason. Some of these orange galacts when they metamorphose have a white back. That white back fades into orange and yellow spots as they age. A small percentage of adults retain this white juvenile color with its adult orange and they look like a koi fish. I coined the name "Koi" to describe a line of orange galacts that I was working with in the late 1990's. This line I bought from a small collector in Holland. I bred them and sold a bunch years ago. It probably represents a distinct location of orange galacts in Brazil somewhere." In other research I did, it was suggested that they were from Goias, Maranhao or Para, which I may already have mentioned.



So they are not an abnormal mutation, nor a fungus, but a genetic anomaly in a population of splash-back orange galactonotus, which as Sean points out, the species was actually named after.
-----
Patty

Pahsimeroi, Idaho



D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

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