What colour morph? *pics*

[rattekonigin]

Hey there guys, came over from kingsnake.ca...Katt, you might remember me :D I'm not real versed in the colour morphs of corns...my CB01 female is an Aztec, that I'm sure of, but I'm not sure of her exact colour...I'm assuming she's normal, but she seems to have a lot more orange than pics if normals I've seen, could she be okeetee? (I hope)...plus, can you really tell if there's hypomelanism present when there's a pattern morph?
Here's are pics (I hope they work out, my html is a little rusty)!
Pics didn't work, had to edit here is a link to them...
http://amphibiherp.tripod.com/corn.html

[patricia]

She looks like a very nice normal, possibly hypomelanistic. She isn't an okeetee. The okeetees have very distinct black outlines around their patches (or white outlines if they're reverse okeetees), and they (should) have no white speckling at all.

[Katt]

What a nice looking corn! <<jealous>>

In any case, she's definitely normal. I'm not sure on the hypo. Aztec is a derivative of motley and motley tends to reduce black. This can be readily seen on some striped individuals, where the black outline of the blotches does not appear to exist in the stripe. So the reduction of black maybe because of the motley. Normal hypo's also tend to have a dusty "rosy" type colouration. Do you know her parents?

~Katt

[rattekonigin]

Unfortunately I don't know her parents :confused: Got her from a pet store... So aztec IS a derivative of motley? I thought so, but other stuff I've read seems to suggest it's a separate trait...never says it outright, definitely implies that motley and striped are related but singles aztec out...

[rattekonigin]

Hey, does hypo do anything to the colour of the "checkers" on the snakes belly? Her "checkers" are mostly orange, with black towards her sides, could that be an indication of hypomelanism or is it just normal?

[Katt]

The best way to see if a corn is motley, is to look for the plain belly. If her belly is plain then she's a bonafida aztec motley, if not, she's an abberant normal. I'll try looking up info on the aztec for ya.

~Katt

[Katt]

I tried looking up the page that described aztec, but I guess it's been so long it's shut down or something. In any case, I remember reading that zippered/aztec corns got their appearance because of the motley gene(s)? that split the dorsal pattern in half and shifted one or both sides, creating the zippered/aztec look. However, since I can't find that page again I can't back up that claim. In any case, look for the plain (uncheckered belly) that'll tell ya if motley's in there!

~Katt

[Kate]

that corns like that are called Zig Zag. I've never heard of "Motley" but then again, I'm really new to this hobby. Are Zig Zag and Motley the same thing or am I wayyyyy off the mark?

[rattekonigin]

Okay, I'm pretty sure this is how it goes...Aztec/ZigZag are the same gene, but they are variable, zigzag being just your zigzag blotch and aztec being more jagged and broken (supposedly looking like aztec-type patterns) so, you could say that all aztecs are zigzag but not all zigzags are aztec....motley/striped is the same gene (but a different gene from aztec?...maybe, maybe not), motley is where the dorsal saddles are almost all connected, it usually has "dots" down the center of the back where the space between saddles would normally be, and striped is just a more severe form of motley where even the "dots" are connected to each other making a dorsal stripe, and stripes down the sides....in motley/striped there is no "checkering" on the belly, now, I've never seen another aztec, so I can't confirm this, but, in aztecs, at least with mine, (and I assume, also in zigzags) the chekers are still there....
I intend to find out for myself, should my new striped corn turn out to be a male (when I get him sexed, I'm calling it a "him" because I'm hoping it's a male) I intend to breed it to my female aztec, should the babies be normal pattern, we'll know for sure that we're dealing with two separate traits.