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Ever since I joined this forum I've been wondering what the difference between all this Hypo and Het and Het Hypo and Hypo Het stuff was. I figured I'd just pick up on it through reading other posts and what not, but I haven't picked up on it so can you guys explain all this stuff to me?

Hypo is hypomelanistic. Its a recessive reduced black color morph.

Het Hypo is a carrier for Hypomelanism. The animal does not have the "condition", but carries the genetics to produce it when bred to another "affected" or carrier animal. Simple Mendelian inheritance.
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Julie
www.[url ban]/gfx

Ok. Here's one for everyone.
Why does hypomelanism lighten up the red so much?
I would've thought it would just create thinner/lighter/non-existent crescents- like in cornsnakes. But the hypo in rainbows seems to really affect the red! Any ideas?
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1.1.0 beardies
1.0.0 bloodred corn
0.1.0 striped anery corn
0.1.0 the cutest lil BRB ever- courtesy of Dave!
0.1.0 leopard gecko
0.1.0 golden gecko
0.2.0 mourning geckos
1.1.0 cats

Good question. My opinion is that "hypomelanism" (as used for BRB's) is really only a label that describes the trait. Pigmentation is extraordinarily complex, especially in BRB's, so I'm not convinced anyone really understands it. Having said that, melanins can produce or play a part in other colors besides black and brown. (In fact, I've read that in some animals melanins alone can produce red/orange.) Just speculation, but red in normal BRB's could simply be the result of a combination of melanin (black/brown) and erythrin (orange/red). So the less melanin, the brighter the orange.

Thanks,
Ed

>>Ok. Here's one for everyone.
>>Why does hypomelanism lighten up the red so much?
>>I would've thought it would just create thinner/lighter/non-existent crescents- like in cornsnakes. But the hypo in rainbows seems to really affect the red! Any ideas?
>>-----
>>1.1.0 beardies
>>1.0.0 bloodred corn
>>0.1.0 striped anery corn
>>0.1.0 the cutest lil BRB ever- courtesy of Dave!
>>0.1.0 leopard gecko
>>0.1.0 golden gecko
>>0.2.0 mourning geckos
>>1.1.0 cats

IMO, Genetics is way more complicated than we like to portray it. Labels like hypomelanism are used accross species lines with ZERO knowledge as to weather the actual genetic mutation is identical, similar or completely different. All we know is the outcome visually is somewhat comparable.

Prime example is the two "albino" strains in BCI, Kahl and Sharp. Both look very similar, both are a form of albinism, but are totally incompatible with each other.

As to why the trait expresses how it does - dunno. To me it appears very different then "hypo" in BCI. In BCI Hypo visually appears to replace some of the black with red. In BRB, the black appears to be gone along with some (if not all) of the red leaving yellows and browns.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Another consideration is the color of original animals that produced the mutation. If they were not intense orange or red, the base color of a hypo version would not be all that intense.

I agree though, hypos look pretty washed out to me. Pretty, but I like the intense colors so I think its kind of a shame that the reduced black expresses itself in a muted color. But what do I know...I still think the "anery" BRBs are really hypo-e.
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Julie
www.[url ban]/gfx

Yeah, I'm with you Julie. Hypos are cool, but I like the intense reds of the normals better.
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1.1.0 beardies
1.0.0 bloodred corn
0.1.0 striped anery corn
0.1.0 the cutest lil BRB ever- courtesy of Dave!
0.1.0 leopard gecko
0.1.0 golden gecko
0.2.0 mourning geckos
1.1.0 cats

You'd probably be better off searching the internet for some basic genetics sites, it's kind of tough to explain it all in a post.

Hypo is short for hypomelanism, which means reduced melanin. Which in turn means reduced black/brown coloration.

Het is short for heterozygous, which means that the gene pair for
the hypomelanism trait contains one normal and one mutated allele. Since they mutation is recessive, the snake will not
be hypomelanistic unless both alleles are mutated. So a het
will look normal, but as Julie said, it's a "carrier" since one
of it's alleles is mutated to cause hypomelanism.

I'd suggest googling on genetics and punnett square, that might be a good start if you want to learn more.

Good luck,
Ed

>>Ever since I joined this forum I've been wondering what the difference between all this Hypo and Het and Het Hypo and Hypo Het stuff was. I figured I'd just pick up on it through reading other posts and what not, but I haven't picked up on it so can you guys explain all this stuff to me?

K, I think I sort of understand it. So breeders are trying to get the reduced brown and black colours, so trying to get more of the reds and oranges?

If you understand genetics and how to predict breeding outcomes of simple recessive genetic mutations have a look at Mike's website to learn about the hypomelanistic morph.

>>K, I think I sort of understand it. So breeders are trying to get the reduced brown and black colours, so trying to get more of the reds and oranges?

Sorry, what is Mike's Website?

Tooscaley.com, he's one of the sponsors at the top of this forum.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

thanks. I figured it was one of them and read through his history of the blood lines and actually I think I got more confused. He mentioned anerythristic and then I didn't know what was what anymore.

Hypo's are lighter, Hets are darker (?), and anery's are ???

I did see a picture in his gallery of hypo-anery's i think it was, and those snakes look awesome. Are those harder to come by?

this is my "rainbow soup" pic, in it are.....

Hypo to the left,
Anery down in front (note the white crescents)
Various normals in the middle (high end extreme colpor ones)
Front right and back right are two Pearls, where the side markings are solid crescent color.

Hope this helps show the difference a little.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

ahhhhhhh, thanks that helps a lot...BUT...are normal ones in the middle hets?

That's the point, you can't tell by looking at them!!! Actually they are not.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

>>
>>Hypo's are lighter, Hets are darker (?), and anery's are ???
>>

Strictly speaking, "het" refers to the genetics behind the particular trait (hypo, anery, albino, etc.), not the visual appearance. So a snake can be het for hypo and/or het for anery and/or het for albino, etc. But visually they will look "normal" if the trait(s) are recessive.

"Hypo" and "anery" refer to visual appearance since those traits affect pigmentation. "Anery" is short for anerythrism, which theoretically means no red/orange.

Thanks,
Ed

K, i think i'm understanding this stuff now. I dreamed about snakes all night cause I was trying to figure this stuff out.

It is funny you posted that question. I used to be confused on all of the Hypo & Het Hypo stuff after I purchased my first BRB. I think I posted a question just like yours except I even went a step further and asked what a CHONDRO was. Little did I know, CHONDRO was another name for Green Tree Python and it did not even pertain to Rainbow Boas lol.
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1.1 BRB
1.0 Pastel Ball Python
0.1 Spider Ball Python