My experience with motleys that showed even less belly checkering than yours was negative responses from forum trolls.

That prompted me to look into this a little more. Then I found the Daytona video interview with Don Soderberg. There's a link on the main page of KS. Don is showing Jeff B a sunglow motley and comments that the motley gene produces a "somewhat" clear belly. When Jeff zooms in on the sunglow motley you can see quite a bit of black. I can't really see any full checks just a spattering of partial checks. That was enough for me to ignore the trolls and satisfy my curiousity. You may want to contact Don for info about how common it is? If it breeds true? etc.

I think most breeders and collectors are looking for perfectly clear bellies. So does that mean that even a slight amount of checkering is "B" grade? As long as the keeper is satisfied who care's what anybody else thinks.

You produced a really nice clutch. You've got a few keepers in that clutch.

John Q

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