That is sure a strange one but I still am pretty sure he is melanistic. He has some color showing through but he appears mostly, if not all black.
If he were anerythristic, then he would still show a lot of color---just no red. So his appearance would be more yellowish. But since he seems mostly black--and he is obviously not an old specimen, I think melanistic.
His carapace shape is clearly a result of captive conditions. The split scutes could be from his incubation or how he was raised. The pyramiding is almost certainly from the conditions under which he grew up. Neither of those factors should influence his breeding though.
If he produces 'normal' looking hatchlings, they may be heterozygous for the melanism---if it is really a genuine genetic trait.
But then, they could (or a certain number of them)show the black color in the first generation in which case it would be a dominant characteristic.

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