Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Over the past couple years as i've got more and more into milks I've heard/read over and over again that there are no micropholis in captivity. fair enough...

however after looking at a couple old forum post and the archives of kingsnake, it appears as though a few people were working with them just 5-9 years ago.

so where did they all go? I find it hard to believe that everyone in unison start mixing blood with other ssp or that they could all just died out or got lost or whatever.

How does something so cool/rare/unique just dissapear and how do some of the seriously dedicated and knowledgeable milkheads out there let that happen?

lastly, what is stopping them from coming back? laws or money? if it's money, i'm willing to "pitch-in", if it's laws, does anyone know any coke smugglers? lol

I'm probably not the best to inform you, But I can answer some questions. As far as the old micropholis I don't remember those being around, but I was out of the keeping part of the hobby during that time.
The reason we don't have them or more of them is laws. There is a natural intergrade line very close to micropholis. I recently was informed by Doug Mong, this about the current line available The original male intergrade originated from Popayan, Colombia. The original female (that keyed-out as a micropholis) that it was bred with was of unknown locale. I don't know if this is the only line available, but I think it might be.
Also the "new" genetics paper done has lumped andesiana, gaigeae, and micropholis all into micropholis. But I disagree with a lot of this paper, not so much that part those 3 are very similar

I'm still working with this line of "micropholis" and have several.