Sulfur = Fire

[Bill Buchman]

To me sulfur is just as much not proven to be the same as fire as it is not proven to be different. Why should the burden of proof be more on one side of the argument than the other? When sulfur was first named and fires where high dollar you better believe fire owners would have been all over anyone calling sulfurs fires.

The recent evidence that the homozygous sulfur looks like the homozygous fire helps make the case that they might be the same but even now if the sulfur line name was to be changed to fire it could well prove to be the misleading info. We may yet confirm subtle differences mentioned here or maybe even incompatibility. Even once the two are bred together and if they prove compatible we could still have an allele situation and might never be able to prove one way or the other. The debate still goes on for lesser vs. butter.

If the original sulfur line was held until fully understood (and I’m not sure that is even possible without genetic mapping) we would all know less about it than we do now. There would be fewer neat combos out there, and other breeders would still be waiting years to get to work with them. Sure we should do our best to avoid confusion but I would argue that letting other breeders work with this line so that they can provide first hand opinions and making the morph a public item of discussion will do more for getting clarity sooner than keeping the project until all questions are answered. What if the originator comes to the wrong conclusion after keeping the morph from the public for years and years while the price of fires drops to where there is no longer great resistance to calling the new line fire? A lot of time would have been wasted and fewer people would be interested in working to confirm the originator’s answers. The hobby would have largely passed the potential new line/morph by.

I think benefits sharing the opportunity to work with a new line/possible new morph with other breeders outweighs any short term potential for confusion for the industry. If lesser and butter where still being held by the originators while they sorted out if they are exactly the same or not (or the platy issue) think of all the current lesser owners who wouldn't have that morph to enjoy.

I echo many of Randy's pearls -- as well as supporting Eric and David for having done more with a "new morph" than many have done before making it readily available to the public (combos last season and Super this year).

I proved an animal this season (Het Cajun) that looked kind of like a Het Red Axanthic?? Sort of like a Lori Ball??? -- but was not related to either. Had I proved one of "those" 2 animals and chosen a name for them, I would have had a problem if someone (me in this case) proved an animal dominant (one clutch/one generation and slapped my animals name on it.

It is less confusing to attach a new name to a new line than adopt the established name/new line for a "similar" morph. Let the snake community decide which morph they like best and why. What is in a name? A rose by any other -- would smell as sweet...words to live by!!! Just an opinion -- everyone is entitled to one. MORE NAMES = LESS CONFUSION