Sorry, but I don't think you'll find any proven mutations for $150 yet (maybe in a few years, maybe not). You could try checking pet stores for imported ghosts that might have slipped through but you are not likely to find any (but it does happen from time to time, I guess they aren't as striking as babies and maybe some think they are in shed or perhaps they really are in shed camouflaging the ghost appearance – look for any clear sheds in the cage of imports). You might find a striped, or black back, or high yellow, or jungle type from an import cherry picker for that but it's not likely to be genetic. But get one you like. If you pay 3X for a pretty one it's not that big of a deal compared to what it will cost you in time and money to grow it up.



If you can get a female to breeding size in 18 months to produce hatchlings at 2 years old you are doing good. I'm lucky to get mine to produce hatchlings at 3 years but I don't do an optimal job of feeding most of the time.



You could perhaps look for an older normal female, perhaps even a proven breeder for $150 (a good deal I would think so probably hard to find) and speed things up. Make sure you get captive raised. I don’t think they bring in many adults any more but when they did people often found it took longer to acclimate them to captivity than to grow up a captive hatched one. Or even look for a hatchling possible gene carrier female if you think you might eventually replace your male with a carrier of the same gene. However, it's generally cheaper to get male possible gene carriers than females. I'm not sure what possible het albino or ghost females go for, maybe you could get one in that range if you looked hard.



The only way your normal male will produce mutant offspring is to breed it to a co-dominant or dominant mutant female and even the most common of those (pastels) are at least 10X (probably more) out of your price range for females. Maybe look for an older captive raised female now to get started sooner (maybe your male could even breed this winter) and get experience and then in 4 or 5 years start buying pastel females if your budget goes up and the price comes down enough.

[ Show Entire Thread ]