Posted by:
Paul Hollander
at Fri May 26 14:38:01 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Paul Hollander ]
A hypo or hypomelanistic boa is one that has less black pigment (melanin) than normal. Think of it as a catchall term. Salmons, pastels, orangetails and possibly some others have less melanin than a normal boa but for different reasons. So do T-positive boas, but people will scream like a wounded buffalo if you call them hypos. 
Rich Ihle's breeding results showed that his hypomelanistic snakes were hypos because of a dominant mutant gene that he named "salmon". Orangetails may also be produced by a dominant mutant gene, but there is no guarantee that the orangetail mutant and the salmon mutant are the same or even related mutant genes. Pastels are supposed to be a line selectively bred to be lighter colored than normal.
As others have already written, most of the hypos and probably 99% of the DH sunglows out there are salmons.
Paul Hollander
[ Hide Replies ]
|
RE: So basically..... - Paul Hollander, Fri May 26 14:38:01 2006