this clutch hatched over the last 36 hrs, from a double-het for hybino (het for hypo & het for albino) female bred to my tangerine albino male that's proven to be at least het/hypo, and may be homozygous hypo & thus a hybino. (I've bred him X several hypo females this year to test that possibility--if ALL of a bunch of babies ARE hypos, it's safe to conclude he is too; but if ANY is NOT a hypo, then he's "merely" het/hypo. I have an 02 "pale" tangerine male with the same possibilities, that i'll test next year, and it looks like i got another one in a clutch last week that'll require keeping & testing in 05.
ANYWAY...I thought this was a neat clutch because of the variability: There are 3 or 4 tangerine albinos out in the open and one peeking out upper right; there's a tricolor hypo (het/albino) lower right, and a tangerine hypo (het/albino) lower left; there's a tricolor het/albino possible het hypo (until the test results are in on the male, at least!) showing a little at lower left, and a sorta tangerine het/albino poss het/hypo showing just a little at top left. There's another tangerine albino buried beneath the incubating material, by the way.
The hypos het/albino are an especially neat phenotype/genotype, by the way: Breed two of them together and ALL the babies are hypo, so the 25% that are albino are BOTH hypo and albino and thus hybinos. It's the only way at present to make definite, immediately distinguishable hybinos. I've got one pair of hypo/albino I'll breed next year, and I'll probably hold back an additional female from this year's production.
A clutch that's even more interesting has started hatching today: five eggs from triple het (het for albino, hypo, and anery) X triple het. So far, the three babies that have slit their eggs seem to include a normal looking possible triple het; a snow (possible het for hypo, but who knows, it COULD be a...what? "snowbino"? But i think the odds of that in the first clutch --1 in 64, if I'm not mistaken--make it unlikely; regardless--ANOTHER baby i'll need to keep?!); and a hypo (possible het for anery & amel). I'll try to post pix of the group once they're all out. Other phenotype possibilities from the triple het clutch include anerys, amels, ghosts, hybino.
So far as i know this is the first clutch to hatch from a triple het pairing. Two friends who got pairs from me in 2001 also have clutches--five eggs each--that will hatch next month.
peace
terry
