Puget babies

[ConcinusMan]

Obviously people want the blues, but do blue parents make more blue snakes?

Yes

Can non-blue parents make blue snakes?

I doubt it. That would be like me taking two normal concinnus' from the area where I find blue ones, breeding them, and expecting blues to come out. Concinnus' and pickeringi are not that far apart genetically or geographically. It doesn't surprise me that they both have a blue phase and I'm pretty sure that producing blues, requires blue parents.

[Steveo]

Yes



I doubt it. That would be like me taking two normal concinnus' from the area where I find blue ones, breeding them, and expecting blues to come out. Concinnus' and pickeringi are not that far apart genetically or geographically. It doesn't surprise me that they both have a blue phase and I'm pretty sure that producing blues, requires blue parents.

Now I'm kind of interested in getting a group together to test things out.

Pickeringii come in blue, yellow, and green, correct? Since green is yellow+blue, it could be possible to get all three colors from green parents (provided that blue and yellow are produced independently).

Let me give an example from my experience with Betta splendens:

Royal blue bettas are het for two codominant color genes... let's call them H/h. Royal blues are Hh. HH produces a steel blue type color. hh produces a green color. Therefore:

steel x steel = steel
steel x green = royal blue
steel x royal blue = 50% steel, 50% royal blue
royal blue x royal blue = 25% steel, 50% royal blue, 25% green
royal blue x green = 50% green, 50% royal blue
green x green = green

Now it's probably not that simple since pickeringii color seems to be more of a broad spectrum than three distinct colors. Maybe it's polygenic. Maybe they have multiple layers of chromatophores (B. splendens has four; to get yellow, for example, the top 3 layers have to be turned off), but it would be interesting to try a bunch of different combinations and record the results.

[mikem]

Pickeringii come in blue, yellow, and green, correct?

There's a red phase as well.