Strategy for breeding double hets...

[cchardwick]

This year I'm pairing up my scaleless head male with two big normal het Caramel Albino females. They are very gravid and should lay eggs soon, one is probably close to 5000 grams so I'm expecting at least 10+ eggs from her, the other is not far behind. So I could potentially get 10 or more scaleless head hatchlings. The hatchlings will be 50% het Caramel Albino, so if I want to get a visual Scaleless Caramel Albino what do you think is the best strategy? Should I hold back a couple pair? Should I hold back all the Scaleless Head females and just a couple males or maybe just one male per 2-3 females? I was thinking the best strategy would be to find a male that is 100% het Caramel Albino Scaleless Head but I don't see any listed on Morphmarket.

Looks like I could get at least some scaleless normals out of the mix since I can visually see the scaleless heads. And it looks like my odds are 1/16 for hitting a visual Scaleless Caramel Albino assuming I start with both parents het for Caramel Albino:

Scaleless head het Caramel Albino x Scaleless Head het Caramel Albino =

Percent	Fraction	Genes
6.25 %	1/16	Normal (Wild Type, Classic)
12.5 %	1/8	Het Caramel Albino
6.25 %	1/16	Caramel Albino (Tyrosinase-positive (T+) Albino, Xanthic, Xanthic Albino)
12.5 %	1/8	Scaleless Head
25 %	1/4	Scaleless Head Het Caramel Albino
6.25 %	1/16	Scaleless (Super Scaleless Head)
12.5 %	1/8	Caramel Albino (Tyrosinase-positive (T+) Albino, Xanthic, Xanthic Albino) Scaleless Head
12.5 %	1/8	Scaleless (Super Scaleless Head) Het Caramel Albino
6.25 %	1/16	Caramel Albino (Tyrosinase-positive (T+) Albino, Xanthic, Xanthic Albino) Scaleless (Super Scaleless Head)

Even if I missed the odds of them both being het for Caramel Albino it looks like I have a 1 in 4 chance of hitting a Scaleless normal:

Scaleless Head x Scaleless Head =

Percent	Fraction	Genes
25 %	1/4	Normal (Wild Type, Classic)
50 %	1/2	Scaleless Head
25 %	1/4	Scaleless (Super Scaleless Head)

[paulh]

I hope you post the results of this mating. I have been wondering if nutrition could play a part in scaleless head. If so, there would be more scaleless head babies from a scaleless head female than from a non-scaleless head female.

This is in my opinion on breeding strategy (YMMV):

1. Hold back at least one scaleless head son from each of the present females, which I designate female #1 and female #2. Holding back a pair from each female is better. Holding back more pairs is still better. It depends on available space/time/money. No need to keep any non-scaleless head baby.

2. Keep track of parentage.

3. Mate scaleless head het possible het carmel albino x het carmel albino. Mate son of female #1 to female #2. Mate son of female #2 to female #1. (Greatest genetic diversity.)

4. If available, make scaleless head het possible het carmel albino x scaleless head het possible het carmel albino. Mate daughter(s) of female #1 to son(s) of female #2. Mate daughter(s) of female #2 to son(s) of female #1. (These are half brother x half sister matings. There is greater genetic diversity than with a full brother x full sister mating.)

5. One male can be mated to more than one female, but use only one male on a given female. Using more than one male on a female will make it impossible to say who's the father of a caramel albino baby.

Good luck.