Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First I want to say thanks for answering my occasional questions as I'm learning about the different kinds of kings. You've all been very helpful, even while I'm "lurking" here.

My question:
A local pet store has a snake they have labeled as a blotched king, but in trying to find more info online, it seems that a blotched and a goini are the same thing. Is this correct?

It also seems that there is a wide variation of colors on goini's. Can someone straighten me out on this? I have seen pics of "goini's" that looked sort of blackish, one almost more of a rosey color, and another pic of one that looked almost copper color. It was georgeous.

Blotched kings and "goini" and "meansi" are all the same thing,
Excellent photos of the wide variation in color & pattern can be found on Keith's site http://www.kingsnake.com/easternkingsnake/ak.html

Horridus

Goini and Blotched Kings are the same thing.

There is a lot of variation in color and pattern with Goini Kings

(Blotched/ Striped/ Patternless/ Aberrant)

there are some "dull" goini that are mainly black with copper banding then there are Hi-red/Orange Goini also "Blaze Phase" Goini that are super looking snakes (they fade with age but some hold lots of there color into adulthood)

Blotched: This Goini female was mainly black but she grew into a nice speckled beast

most recent pix

Patternless

Striped with aberrant sides (sold this guy... still kicking my self, but he went to a good home)

From Hi-red line

Blaze

There are also a few Goini crosses out there
Goini X Cali (not a Huge fan of this cross but there are some nice ones)
Goini X Eastern (occurs naturally and in captivity)
Goini X Brooksi (i'm guilty of creating some of these and i love um all!)

`05Goini X Brooksi

Hope that helped a lil

~ZF
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Royal Blue ReptileZ

Home of Bklyn's Finest Brooksi

Here are some other examples:
First pic is a 03' F-1, 3 ' female from Len/Ken Krysko's wild caught parents. This is still considered a goini, according to the Krysko's (who ARE some of the most well-known experts on the studies/taxonomy of Getulas) though it does show eastern kingsnake influence in its' pattern.
Second pic is a wildcaught 3.5' male, more typical in pattern of a true goini, showing only slightly darker, oval, blotches (when viewed from above).
Third pic is a baby female goini that I picked up at a reptile show in NC. This one should start showing some speckles in the dark interspaces as it gets older
I also have a patternless (which you've already seen in ZF's post, above)
Hope this helps de-confuse you more (but maybe not???)

Zee

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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

That wild caught goini is awesome. Who collected it, was it one of Kryskos?

Thanks. He was brought in to a Tallahassee petstore by a local collector. John Hays used to live there (until a few days ago) and immediately bought the snake. He had him for quite a while, and (fortunately for me) he sold him to me back in August.

Zee
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

Man it disappoints me that they start to look so dull. I just got a baby from PetCo the other day, black with deep orange. Awesome.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.freewebs.com/badyear2005

Start to look dull??? I think they get better with age. Yeah the high red babies are neat but a adult patternless or striped or blotched... OK any phase of a real Goini is killer. I see some that are more man made looking I don't like and well lets not get into morphs except to say I like the natural of all the getula subs more than any of their morphs.

The real question is why a PetCo. snake instead of from a breeder on here???? I think Gourmet Rodent is suppling the kings for them now as well as the corns but still there is a long time between breeder and you for those snakes and they never seem to be setup well.

Later Jason

Well it's like this... I was out at PetCo looking at some tanks, and saw that the 3 goini from the month before were still there. So I got one of the guys to show me all 3. I figured 1) I could save a spectacular looking snake and 2) spend less than I would if I bought from someone online. True too.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.freewebs.com/badyear2005

WOW! Very nice animals Jason! Love the first and third one the best!

Zee
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

Great looking animals! That last one is clean!
Do you have any more information on that WC you may be willing to share? Don't worry, I'll never catch one, been there 31 times and never even seen a roadkill! LOL Also I would love to see what the parents of the first animal looked like. Thanks for posting!

Horridus

Thanks. 31 times??? Wow! That's a lot! I was there two years ago and spent a whole week herping and only found some ratsnakes, copperheads, and watersnakes!
He was brought in to a Tallahassee petstore by a local collector. John Hays bought the snake when he lived there, kept it for while, and then (fortunately for me) let me buy it from him.
I saw the parents of that Krysko animal (that I actually received from Peter Jolles in a trade) when I visited the Krysko's two years ago, but unfortunately have no pics of them.

Zee
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-