Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Most people think that you can tell a Super salmon or a dominait hypo by the way it looks. You here people say things like "probable super salmon," "I'm almost sure this girl is a super," and so on beause they are clean and have great color. I have also heard peole say that even a speckly "ugly" baby from a salmon to salmon (or salmon to super salmon) can turn out being a super and it doesn't matter what they look like. Has anyone done any research on this? Any info would help. Thanks.
Michael Burton
boaevolution
Here is one of my Salmons from D&M Reptiles. My Sharp albino is all over her as you read.

I do not think you can tell 100% if a Salmon is a Super or not.

This girl for instance is incredibly clean and doesn't even have black speckles on her belly. She is better looking than my four possible supers. I also know she can not be a Super, she was from a Non-Super X Normal breeding.

By the way, that is her "dark phase" in that picture.

This guy is my best possible Super (recently sold). He was from a Salmon X Salmon breeding, and has a 25% chance of being a Super. Going by speckling and the actual level of Hypomelanism, the above female could also be a super, the male doesn't have as nice of color either.

These are some other possible supers, siblings to the above male:

I have never produced a Salmon litter, much less one that could produce Supers, so I can not compare too much.

I know Rich has refined some of his lines so much, that they have nearly NO black. Again, I do not know what the results are.

I have seen some proven Supers that would, to me, be called Ugly Salmons. I have also seen some Non-Supers that were incredibly colored, and the black scales could be counted.

Because there is no definite difference between Supers and Non-Super Salmons they are classified as a Dominant versus being a Co-Dominant mutation.

It has been noted that EXTREME Salmons, that have been refined by breeding the best over multiple generations, have RED tounges, and eyes. The female at the top of this post also has red eyes though.

There are UGLY Supers, and GORGEOUS Het. Hypos (non-super). Certain characteristics may make for better guesses, but that is all they are guesses.

Happy New Year Michael and all other herpers!

This question has come up quite a bit lately and the answer is that there is no definite way to visually distinguish between a Salmon and a Supersalmon.

One thing to look for is the amount of black on the borders of pattern between the vent and the tip of the tail. A SuperSalmon ALMOST always has no black borders on that pattern. However, we have Salmons that have zero black on that pattern, so that is not a sure fire method of determination.

Another thing to look for is the mustache. A Supersalmon will often have a very reduced mustache, or none at all. However, we have a male we proved to be a Supersalmon and he has a normal mustache.

Many say that reduced pattern and cleanliness is the way that you can tell. However, we have a SuperSalmon that is really flecked out and has loads of pattern, yet he is a proven Super. We have Salmons with almost no pattern, no flecks, just pieces of a mustache, and no black on the tail, and they are not Supers.

A well known boa breeder recently asked us if the color of the eyes was an indication, suggesting that the deep red eyes means its a Super. We have a proven super with white eyes, and Salmons with brick red eyes. We have found little to no correlation with the eye color theory.

Whats going to be more difficult is when Sunglows gain popularity. How will we tell the difference between a Sunglow and a SuperSunglow? There will more than likely be even more room for error here.

The reason we use the terms "possible" and "probable" is because we would rather error on the side of caution. We have a few Salmons for sale right now that we feel absolutely confident that they are Supers, but until we formerly prove out one of the parents, we will not guarantee it.

Its a great question Michael and one that I hope we are all working on answering. Every time we think we have the answer defined, one or two animals produces a litter that foils the theory completely!

Best of luck to everyone in the New Year and if anyone has more to add to this discussion or has another theory that has not been considered, we would love to hear it!

In the picture below we are really confident that this girl is a SuperSalmon. Do you see any black between the vent and the tail tip? Someday someone will prove her to be or not to be.

Thank you,
Salmonboa.com

I once heard Rich say that a very good indicator for a salmon being super is if it has no black on it's belly. Has this proven to be true?
Good Luck this year with all of your projects.
Bill Kirby

Happy New Year Bill! In all of the discussions I have had lately with Rich about this topic, he does not talk much about that theory anymore. I can tell you of a SuperSalmon male that is here that has flecking all over his belly. So, I dont think that is a guaranteed way to tell the difference, but Im definitely going to bring this up to him again to get an update on his thoughts on the belly theory.

Hey Bill here is a pic I took of one of the Blood x Hogg's. They are growing fast!

Happy New Year,
John

so this would not work either for identifying a super. I know they are not supers because the dame was a normal.

Bob