My best guess is that there is something in the blood-
lines concerned, and hopefully eventually we will be
able to refine this condition and can start to predict
exactly what’s going on. This coming season I will be
crossing a reverse Paradox albino male back to his
sister or mum. If we get higher proportions of Paradox
from directly-related animals then we are going some-
where. The male concerned in a Caramel animal with
albino patches. I tried to breed from him last year but
he just was not up to it. It will be interesting because
‘Hopefully we can refine the
condition and start to predict
exactly what’s going on.’
right where his hemipenes are is a big patch of albino,
so I will be very curious to see what he breeds as. I
want to work out what he will produce before putting
him over too many females – he could breed as a het
or an albino. I’m also trying to remove as much
Darwin blood as possible to determine whether the
Paradox trait is tagging along with the Darwin genes.
I’m pretty sure that every Paradox animal I have ever
produced has been a male, which is why I haven’t
kept all of them. My feeling at this stage is that the
Paradox state needs to be present on both sides of
the family tree in order to be expressed. All of the
ones that I have produced have come from pairings
that are closely related. There is a lot of work still to
be done, but the next couple of years will be very
interesting.
Above: Paradox Sunglow (hypo albino)..
Below: reverse Paradox (Caramel with albino
patches).
Right (slide show): Caramel Paradox Jag (Caramel
Jag with axanthic patches) and Paradox Ghost Zebra
Jag believed to be the only one in the world.
Images by Jarred Sharp.