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where do these snakes come from and do they get any cheaper then 1000$?>

>>where do these snakes come from and do they get any cheaper then 1000$?>
A ghost honduran is a honduran that is both hypo and anerythristic. It's called a double-homozygous animal, homozygous (showing the recessive gene) for both morphs. The anerythristic morph eliminates almost all red; the hypomelanistic morph reduces the amount of melanin (black). The combined effect is like an anerythristic but lighter and cleaner, with grey bands when they're young darkening as they age, but the pink and white areas still stay cleaner than anerys.

I've seen them for slightly less than 1,000 and a lot more, for exceptional pinstriped and especially vanishing pattern examples. It's all a matter of supply and demand. There are still very few ghosts in existence, especially of breeding age, and to the best of my knowledge the number of vanishing patterns can be counted -- maybe counted twice -- on the fingers of one hand.

The scarcity is partly the result of the degree of difficulty of producing them: if you breed a het for albino x a het for albino, 1/4 of the babies are albinos. But if you breed a double het for ghost (an animal that is het for hypo AND het for anerythristic) X another double het for ghost, while 1/4 of the babies are hypo and 1/4 are anerys, only 1 in 16 are BOTH, and only tdhat 1/16th are ghosts. At one in 16 obviously there aren't a lot being produced from that kind of pairing, yet double hets are the necessary first step--people started the process toward producing the first ghosts by crossing an anery x a hypo: all the babies pick up one hypo gene from the hypo parent, one anery gene from the anery parent, and since those are recessive traits a single gene doesn't create a hypo or anery but rather a het for hypo, and a het for anery, so all the babies are double hets.

Forgive my rambling, i hope that was of some use.
peace
terry dunham
albino tricolors
st pete florida

I should have added that the price will almost certainly go lower and lower as the years pass and more are produced. The very first ones sold for $3000-$4000. Only rarely do the prices of morphs increase: the price of anerythristics, for example, had declined to around $600 each a number of eyars ago, and then albino hondurans appeared, and people wanted to get anerys to breed to the albinos (in THAT instance to produce double-homozygous anery and albino, which are called snows) so with that increased demand, the price of anerys went back up to around 850 or 900. But with the exception of that sort of event, where people see some new and exciting usefulness for ghosts in a new breeding project, or unless something were to happen -- i can't imagine what it would be -- that somehow reduced the numbers of ghosts available -- the price will go down. The dilemma, always, is deciding whether to get something when it's new and rare and exciting partly because of that, and will produce babies that will also sell for attractive prices (but almost never as much as the parents cost 2-3 years earlier), or whether to wait...wait long enough and the price will drop to a fraction of its current level. Of course, by that time, they'll be so numerous there may not be a big thrill in owning one, or you may decide you like the wild type with its brilliant colors instead. It's all a matter of personal preference, patience, differing objectives for different people.
peace
terry

Double het for Ghost x Double het for Ghost produces:
You are right in the 1 out of 16 is both, a Ghost but the 1/4 is off a little.
1 Ghost
3 Anerythristics (2 of these are het for Hypo)66% chance
3 Hypos (2 of these are het for Anerythristic)66% chance
9 Normal looking (4 are double het, 2 het hypo, 2 het anerythristic, and one completely normal-not het at all)
Total 16

Double het for Ghost x Double het for Ghost produces:
You are right in the 1 out of 16 is both, a Ghost but the 1/4 is off a little.
1 Ghost
3 Anerythristics (2 of these are het for Hypo)66% chance
3 Hypos (2 of these are het for Anerythristic)66% chance
9 Normal looking (4 are double het, 2 het hypo, 2 het anerythristic, and one completely normal-not het at all)
Total 16

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Okay for sake of argument, I'll agree with Terry.
If you breed a het hypo to a het hypo, statistically you will produce 1/4 hypo. Now say you breed a het hypo to a het hypo/het anerythristic, 1/4 of those offspring should still indeed be hypo. The punnett square has its flaws.

Peace,
Ian

The punnet square doesn't have it's flaws since it's statistical averages (if statistical is even a word). I have bred albino Black rats to hets and gotten only 3 albinos out of 13 eggs and have gotten 2 snows out of 12 eggs from double hets. It's the averages you should get in a perfect world.
As far as 1/4 is concerned yes 4 of 16 will be hypo and 4 of 16 will be anerythristic BUT 1 of these 4 will be showing both the hypo and anerythristic gene. This means 1 snake is both and you can't count it as 2 snakes. 3 will be anerythristic 3 will be hypo and 1 will be both which is 7 of the 16 babies showing either hypo, anerythristic or both traits. That is 7/16's of the clutch. That throws out the 1/4 % of the total clutch since if 1/4 were hypo (4 snakes) and 1/4 were anerythristic (4 snakes) then that adds up to 8 snakes which would be 8 of 16 which is 1/2 of the clutch. 7/16 isn't the same as 1/2. The breakdown is still 3/16 hypo, 3/16 anerythristic, 1/16 ghost, 9/16 normal looking. I just wanted to let the person who asked the question to know what are the actual percentages by the punnet square are in case he/she wants to do more research one day and wouldn't be slightly mis informed about the 1/4 comment. Not trying to flame someone but only giving the exact percentages. Nothing wrong with saying 1/4 as long as it is mentioned that this is rounding it off to make it easier and not exactly what the punnet sqaure came up with. Even Terry has these correct percentages listed on his genetics page.

n/p

You're right, Henry. And of course Ian's right, too. I should have said that one-each of the "1/4" single-homozygous animals occurs on an animal that's also homozygous for the other morph, thus the 1/16 double-homozygous animal represents both a hypo and an anery. But your answer was more precise, Henry, the visual results after all's said and done ARE 3/16 and 3/16 of the hypos and anerys. I should have said so. thanks for pointing it out. TD