Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello once again.
i was lookong at pictures of my 66% het green ghost and I notice that every shed it get's lighter in colour and the lightness stays permanently(and not just the brighter color.I mean it is loosing the melanin content in it's skin). I noticed this before but thought it was just the light playing tricks but today my friend looked in the tank and said "Is that the one I gave you? It look's really different then before". so now for the question. is there a chance that this could be a way of Identifying a possible het? I'm really kinda curious about this.
any thought's would be greatly appreciated

Nope,sorry,thats why its called a recessive trait,because it disappears visually.
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Charles Glaspie

ok if the hets are supposedto look normal then Why would this one be lightening up?

Its really a hypo that slipped by the breeder.

...seriously though,it could be any number of reasons for slight changes in color/melanine from shed to shed.(A true hypo does not show its pattern in its shed,its clear).
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Charles Glaspie

The concept of a fully recessive mutation that is never even slightly visible in the hets is a textbook idea and we are finding that in the real world many "recessive" morphs have some at least sporadic co-dominant tendencies.

I've heard of a known het ghost (from ghost X normal) that shed patternless and even seen one in person. I've got a couple real screamer possible het ghosts too.

However in these cases it's hard to be sure if what we are seeing is the het ghost gene showing through a little or if it could just be other premium "normal" color genes that have been breed into the ghost lines over the years. I'm sure there have been several generations of really nice "normal" girls picked to breed into ghost projects and those genetics may be confusing things. Something to try to figure out though!

I've heard of a known het ghost (from ghost X normal) that shed patternless and even seen one in person.

Wow thats crazy,but how can you be sure she(mom)wasn't a het then ?

Of course then there were those silver pastels(VPI?)that were only 50%het/axanthic,but obviously het due to the pastel genes visual influence.
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Charles Glaspie

"Wow thats crazy,but how can you be sure she(mom)wasn't a het then ?"

In both cases there where no obvious homozygous ghosts produced including the clear shedding animals that didn't look like ghosts either. Apparently they where just het ghosts that shed clear for some reason. It's not proof that being het is what made them shed clear like a homozygous ghost but that's my suspicion based on other examples of het “recessives” occasionally showing through.