Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any thoughts on this animal? It came from a ghost to ghost breeding and displays both ghost and normal traits. Has anyone seen one like this before? Thanks in advance for any posts/replies.

Jamie

What you have would be called a paradox by most. Paradox animals are most likely the result of either A) Mosaicism or B) Chimeraism.

A genetic Mosaic is usually the result of a local reversion to a normal state.

A Chimera on the other hand is the result of fused embryos usually, and is much more rare. But just imagine if you had a Homozygous Ghost embryo and a Normal embryo that conglomerated into one embryo. Some parts of the animal would be ghost, and some would be normal, and voila, you have a paradox animal.

Hope this helps, and if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

-Dan

Thanks for the response. I agree upon further research the he is paradox. I am hoping to prove him out this year but am concerned that my het ghost female may not be up to size. Maybe someone out there likes him enough to send me a feamle het ghost on breeder loan.......or I find one from a reputable dealer. He truly is much more stunning in person....

Just thought I'd chime back in regarding proving your animal out. If you are referring to proving the paradox as inheritable, I would say that more than likely it will be as with all the other morphs, uninheritable. Now if you are trying to prove he/she as a ghost, then here is a lil more info.

If these paradox animals truly are chimeras/genetic mosaics, then you need to remember that the only way that your snake can pass on the ghost trait is if the reproductive organs contain the ghost gene, and aren't just a normal reversion. Basically to simplify, if the reproductive organs have the ghost makeup(homozygous) then 100% of the offspring will receive the ghost allele. The other two possibilities are that A) reproductive organs contain only the "normal" genotype(genetics) OR B) they contain the het. ghost genotype(meaning the offspring have a 50% chance of inheriting the ghost allele).

Hope this helps,
Dan

I have a female that shows some of the same spotting that yours does. I got this from someone and do not know the history on mine. However it does feed like a champ on rats and does not look like a Imported ball. Thanks David
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