I purchased a NERD 100% het albino male, bred him to a normal and kept the four 50% chance het daughters. I then sold the 100% het male to fund a 66% chance het albino male that was also 50% chance het Jolliff axanthic. When I bred him to the first of the four 50% chance het albino daughters I only got 5 eggs and 3 when bad quickly (might have been infertile). However, both of the remaining eggs contained albinos (from a 66% X a 50%). The bad part is they where both horribly kinked and didn't survive but at least I know I hit. I've since sold that proven het female so I sure hope one of her sisters also hits. I got two babies from one of them bred to the same now proven het male but both where normals. I don’t think two babies was enough to disprove her being a het and two of the sisters have het to produce.



I've heard of at least two "normal" females turning out to be het albinos over the years (i.e. unexpectedly produced albinos when bred to a known albino gene male). Depending on how widely and randomly distributed the mutant genes are in Africa you might expect the het rate for some mutations to be as high as 1 in 100 (IF randomly distributed, 1 in 100 hets would produce 1 in 10,000 wild bred homozygous mutants). As more and more normals are bred to gene carrying males I expect we will keep finding a few surprise hets.



Hopefully this year and the next few I'll have a few more possible het stories gone good to share. In addition to the albino and Jolliff axanthic project I’m working with possible het stripe, piebald, clown, and caramel. I finally broke down and bought a 100% het ghost male but will keep his 50% chance het daughters so that will also be a possible het project. I’m also working with an unproven import girl with some axanthic and ghost characteristics. Working with possible hets is a personal preference and not for everyone. In my case I like having a shot at a lot of different morphs rather than having everything ride on one surer thing (like a pair of 100% hets).

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