Quote Originally Posted by infernalis View Post
The sad part about that photo, it was taken by a CASUAL collector who is not a breeder, he does not care about the genetics, all he saw that day was some pretty garter snakes making more pretty garter snakes.
And back to the original topic... That is one of the main issues with the photo. Casual collector buys one of the babies from this mating, couple of years down the line decides to sell it on to someone who is looking for a new breeding snake without realising or informing the breeder that it's an intergrade.
For all we know, in the European population this could have already happened and quite possibly more than once. If the offspring that are sold as tetras look like tetras it's extremely unlikely that anyone other than a breeder who introduces the intergrade would know they are circulating. Knowing that a tetrataenia/infernalis cross has happened once and assuming if it's happened before it was done quietly without photos, it kind of undermines confidence I would have in buying a tetra.