On tonight's episode of 'I really should be doing my homework'...

While I mentioned Nagi here among the rest of my menagerie in my intro thread, I hadn't really introduced him yet. But he just shed and is looking at his most handsome, and is now at 155g, so I figure this is a good time for it.

So without further ado, this is Nagisa:

He does have a little scuffing on his face, seen as that white mark above his nose... :/ A keep I had him in proved not as safe as I had hoped, I removed him from it right away when I noticed and the damage didn't look too bad so I was hoping this shed would do away with it, but apparently it was worse than I thought and will need another shed or two for it -sigh-

My fave markings of his are on his neck- I love how he has lines that seem to weave over the center line-


And, though I don't have a great pic of it (the snake would not stop moving for long enough XD), the reason I picked out him from the other normals around him was 'cause he had wonderful white outlining to the markings on his sides-


So, TECHNICALLY he's a normal. He was sold to me as a normal for the price of a normal ($20). However, I was told when I got him that he might be a special. It sounded like the guy got him from someone else or something? But what he specifically told me was that he was told that if this snake was bred to a mojave it would produce a morph called crystal, but he obviously hadn't been able to breed this one or his brothers to prove this statement so he was selling them as normals.

A few months, and plenty of research later, I have come to the conclusion of 'he might be he might not be', after all he has some of the traits I see given to specials (good white outlines to his side markings-why I picked him out specifically, somewhat bright markings with significant black speckling at the sides...) however nothing that is not well within the realm of normal variation. So, since I am curious as heck, especially when it comes to genetics and such, I plan to get a female phantom (or, preferably for better outcome, a multi-gene female with phantom, but I'll see what I end up finding and loving enough to bring home) so that in a few years or so I can breed them and see if Nagisa would prove out or not. Regardless of if he proves to be special or ends up just being normal, I deem him a beautiful and lovely snake. :3