>>Hoping this pair will produce a solid black tricolor...
>>

That's what you would hope but I'm not entirely sure. I too have Bicolors that I've been breeding this last year. Out of the 3 clutches of 18 eggs that have hatched and the fourth clutch of 7 eggs that are hatching now, every single hatchling has been a tricolor. There are a few, only 2 or 3, that appear to have more black speckling on their red scales than the others, so they might eventually lose the red over time. But the majority of the babies look like typical beautiful tricolors. I'm hoping that bicolor-ism is a heritable genetic trait but so far no bicolor hatchlings have popped out. That would more than likely mean that it is not a Mendelian trait but probably a polygenic trait in which several genes are determining the amount of black that is present than just one. If this is the case, then producing a bicolor would be a lot more on the side of luck than anything else. Perhaps selective linebreeding might establish this as well, but the only way to really keep it intact would be through inbreeding that line.

Please keep us informed of your progress with your pair. And yes, that is a stunning almost all black one you have there!
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles

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• Sweet Pair of Bicolors - JTColubrids, Fri Jul 31 15:34:29 2009
• RE: Sweet Pair of Bicolors - JustinMitcham, Fri Jul 31 20:21:23 2009
• RE: Sweet Pair of Bicolors - LIRepman76, Sat Aug 1 00:03:08 2009
• RE: Sweet Pair of Bicolors - brhaco, Sat Aug 1 09:01:49 2009
• RE: Sweet Pair of Bicolors - kaydee, Sat Aug 1 12:59:34 2009
• RE: Sweet Pair of Bicolors - JTColubrids, Sat Aug 1 23:44:43 2009
• RE: Sweet Pair of Bicolors - tmshaffer, Sun Aug 2 13:18:26 2009
• RE: Sweet Pair of Bicolors - Rextiles, Tue Aug 4 05:54:05 2009