Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know that baby chrondro's end up green (for the most part) and can be born yellow, red, or blue.

My question is, when I'm looking for a potential chrondro baby do the dorsal patterns I see now change too? I want a nice solid lime greenish snake with a brillant white line or set of dots down the back. If I choose a baby with a nice dorsal pattern will I get unpleasently surprised when he/she grows up and changes color AND loses those dorsal patterns?

Thanks!

I think what you are looking for is a Mearuke, Matt from GHI reptiles might still have some for sale. Only a hand full of true mearukes are in the us so expect to pay lots of cash for them 2-5k.

As for the dorsal pattern, it depends. So yes and no. Your best bet it to find a baby from 2 adults you like. If your looking for green and white, i would highly reccomend Tomm Philips you can find his site "lair of the dragon faced tree worms" at www.chondroweb.com as well as many other quality sites.

Hope that helps you.

Just for your information, baby chondros are never born blue. They hatch out either red(in various shades from bright red to nearly black) or yellow.

As Julian said, if you're looking for green with a white dorsal stripe, you will want a Merauke-type, which are very rare and expensive(Julian's quote of $2-5k is very accurate).

However, you can get Aru-types which are known to sometimes grow up to have a fair amount of white dorsally. There are several good sources for quality Arus, including Rico Walder at Signal Herp, Chris Roullie(he has some excellent high-white lines), and Tomm Phillips as Julian already mentioned.

If you are serious about purchasing some Meraukes, though, you will want to contact Matt at GHI(not sure if he still has any available), Damon Salceies, and Trooper Walsh. But like I said before, be prepared to shell out some serious cash for that particular locality type.

decided on, an ARU type... In my hours of research on these amazing/stunning animals I found that most ARU pics I saw were exactly what I want.

I'll check out those sites. I'm only IN medical school now, not a doctor for another 3 years so no $5k snakes for me... YEAH *evil grin* not yet anyway

thank you both so much!

-HJS

There are many fine breeders working with Aurs. Avoid imports or farm raised. Chris Roullie out of Tucson, Arizona has one of the nicest collections of unrelated bloodline Arus in the World. He's been breeding them for multiple generations. Many of his breeders posses a strong genetic influence for high white as well as strong blue.

It seems to be the case that all Aru offspring are yellow with dark dorsal pattern shaped as saddles. The side pattern consists of blotches and spots. The tail is blunt, but not always black as some suggest. The type of white which develops is a form of leucism specific to certain scales. Typically for the Aru white develops scale by scale on top of juvenile patterned area and in a broken dorsal symmetry line. As the dark juvenile patterned area fades away, it is most often replaced with a shade of blue in the same patterned area. Arus also typically have blue marked bellies and females are know to be of a type which often become blue with age.

Here are two examples of Arus with an unusual amount of white. These were wild caught imports(farm raised) which have unfortunately passed on due to the regular issues which many import(farm raised) animals have. Many of Chris Roullie's breeders posses a similar look, but are truely captive bred.

I looked but I couldn't find.

Anyone else have suggestions aside from ARU's that are a pretty solid green, no blue specs at all, and some nice white?

Thanks everyone!

For a sure thing of reduced blue markings pick animals that have changed color already. There are many good breeders which might offer such the look.

Here's a link from another forum that Chris Roullie posted. You may be able to reach him through his user name and a private message. Click on viridisnakes for his private message.

http://pub95.ezboard.com/fmoreliaviridisfrm1.showMessage?topicID=744.topic

>>In my experience dorsal patterns do not remain into adulthood. From the discription you give of what you want I would suggest you seek out an Aru-type Chondro from a reputable breeder. Tomm Phillips, who runs ChondroWeb, has some very nice looking Aru babies...with pics of the parents. Good luck in your pursuits...enjoy and think Green...!...TW

Thank you VERY much, just the luck of the draw...