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The Marble Crested Gecko...what appears to be a totally new morph.

AnthonyCaponetto Dec 24, 2004 03:47 AM

Before I start throwing a new "morph" name around, let me give you a little background about these guys. This is a new trait or morph that I'm working with. I'm not even sure if the parents of these guys have produced another Marble.

A little over a year ago, I got a couple of pretty little dark colored fire type hatchlings (clutch mates), from Bobby Pruitt (who I've taunted with many pictures ever since). Both babies were identical and they continued to look very similar up until about 4-5 months of age. They were the typical grey & orange color of juvenile dark fire cresteds.

Here's a photo of them as juvies.

The male turned out to be a typical (but very nicely colored) dark grey and bright orange Fire...

However, upon reaching sexual maturity, the female began to look very different from the male. By the time they were sexable, she looked completely different from her brother or any other Crested Gecko that I've ever seen.

Here's a photo of her as a young adult, taken earlier this year.

While I'm not a big fan of inbreeding, I bred the female Marble to her brother hoping to get more Marbles...thinking that the male might be carrying some kind of recessive gene.

While I've not done enough experimentation to know if the male carries the gene or not, the pair (Marble female and dark Fire male) have now produced quite a number of babies this year and some of the babies are indeed Marbles.

Here's one of the first ones I produced. This particular juvie is only a few months old and already showing more color than mom did at that age.

Here's another baby. This one is only two months old and is already developing a lot of orange...even more than the one above. As it gets older, the orange on its sides will become just as intense as the orange on its back...completing the "Marble" look.

Just FYI, I began calling the female "Marbled" quite a while back, but I've recently seen unrelated animals with similar (but not quite the same) patterns also being referred to as Marbles. I'm not sure who came up with the Marble name first and I really don't care, but I will say that the ones I have are definitely different from any others I've seen. As of right now, none of mine have been sold to the general public...only a couple of my closest friends have gotten babies from me.

The defining characteristics of my Marbles are hard to put into words, but I'll do my best to describe what I've observed so far. Marbles start off as dark babies with an orange dorsal pattern...a Fire morph, basically. As they get older, like most Fires, they begin to develop orange on their sides...but unlike a Fire, the orange on their sides connects to the orange on their backs and over time, gets just as intensel. Likewise, the remaining black pattern on their sides also connects to the black pattern on their backs. Other characteristics include a small number of relatively large dalmatian spots and the fact that they're completely lacking of any white markings. They have no white fringe on the legs, no white dots on the sides, etc. The only white on them is their cloacal spurs.

Oviously, it's still early in the development stages, but from what I've been able to gather, this morph looks to be something new...a random trait, as opposed to a combination of two existing morphs. That, to me, is very exciting.

Anyway, I hope some of you are half as excited about them as I am...and I really hope that someone enjoyed the long story behind them.

Thanks,
Anthony
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

Replies (9)

NeoScales Dec 24, 2004 09:37 AM

Those are some smoking Cresteds Anthony, very nice traits to be working with.

Of course I'm biding my time with the 2 Marbled offspring I got from you, can’t wait to see who turns into what.
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-Randy May
www.neoscales.com
Email Me

ike420 Dec 24, 2004 03:42 PM

Those marbles are nice, Anthony. I think I may have a yellow marbled male back at school...I'll send you pictures when I get back there.

AnthonyCaponetto Dec 25, 2004 09:22 PM

The chances of you having one with the same trait as these are slim to none, considering this one kind of came out of nowhere and I've not let any of mine go. Either way, I'm curious to see how similar other animals are, so definitely post a pic.

-Anthony

>>Those marbles are nice, Anthony. I think I may have a yellow marbled male back at school...I'll send you pictures when I get back there.
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

fatboyreptiles Dec 25, 2004 05:44 PM

Anthony I gotta tell you those are very nice .I have a female that looks similar and could not figure out where she belonged in the color scale .I say keep posting your pics cause it fun to see your stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Oh by the way this is the male she is in with now!!!

AnthonyCaponetto Dec 25, 2004 09:29 PM

Like I said, I doubt anyone has the same "Marble" trait that I'm working with(unless Bobby Pruett or Mike Conley have produced any), but I'd like to see pics of that female anyway...just to see what's the closest thing out there to the ones I have.

Definitely post pics of your female if you can.

Thanks,
Anthony

>>Anthony I gotta tell you those are very nice .I have a female that looks similar and could not figure out where she belonged in the color scale .I say keep posting your pics cause it fun to see your stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Oh by the way this is the male she is in with now!!!
>>
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

lzrdldy530 Dec 26, 2004 12:25 PM

HA! Now I'm REALLY going to be watching your website to see when you start offering THESE to your wealth of faithful followers! (or you can email me when you have one...) TOO COOL! (and no, I for one have NOTHING that looks anything like those.) Next you might do dark red marbles maybe......
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Terri
4:8:7 crested geckos: Popcorn, Goldfish, Harley, Bear, Big Red, Olive, Smudge, Blackie, Belle, Brilliant, Tina, Brick, Toni(y), Kermit, ChiliPepper, Spot, WildFire, WildSpatter & Randy(i)

fatboyreptiles Dec 26, 2004 05:30 PM

I see what you are saying and she is different so no worries on everyone having the same morph.........

AnthonyCaponetto Dec 27, 2004 01:51 AM

Not a marble, but a nice harlequin...a very extreme example, actually. There are a few breeders striving for so much pattern on their sides that there is hardly any black. I'd be doing the same with that one.

>>I see what you are saying and she is different so no worries on everyone having the same morph.........
>>
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

fatboyreptiles Dec 27, 2004 06:57 PM

Thanks Anthony thanks for the ideas .I have her in with the male I posted above her so this would start to take out more balck from the next generation.I still have red crested on my wish list so we will see......

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