# Some Banded Water Snake Morphs



## pitbulllady (Jul 5, 2010)

Thought I'd post some pics of some of my Banded Water Snake(_Nerodia fasciata_) morphs to show just what sort of colors you can get with these guys.

First, I'm posting a few pics of normal, run-of-the-mill Bandeds for comparison, because I realized that many people probably haven't seen one, especially if this species isn't native to where you live, and it would be good to show just how different from the normal color some of the morphs can actually be.

Young adult normal-phase male:






Belly scales of normal-phase male, showing typical colors and pattern






Large and VERY gravid normal female Banded:





This is the one whose snout got badly injured when the display case she was in fell over at a reptile show where I got her.

Heterozygous hypomelanistic male-this guy was in rough shape when I got him, with many scars and scabs, and was a picky eater at first but has since decided he really likes small fish.  He had had several bad sheds, which built up on his tail, restricting blood flow, so he will probably eventually lose the last inch and a half or so of his tail.






Belly scales of heterozygous hypo male-incidentally, the hypomelanistic gene has been proven to be a co-dominant trait in these snakes, like it is in Colombian Boa Constrictors and unlike how it behaves in most Colubrids.






Close-up of his face






Now, a homozygous, or "super", hypomelanistic male:






His face, close up






A greenish-colored, possibly anerythristic(reduced red pigment)female.  The only reddish coloration on this snake is on her face.  She also has had some bad sheds in the past, as well as an injury to HER snout from unknown caues(she is a recently wild-caught snake and had a big lump of scar tissue on her nose when captured), so her nostrils are pretty much non-existant, forcing her to breathe through her mouth.






Her sides showing pattern and color






Her belly showing lack of red pigment






Another oddly-colored female, this one a GOLD, possibly xanthic(excessive yellow pigment)-I won't know until I breed her I guess, just what she is.  Her red is also very reduced, as well as her black pigment, but whether it's really reduced in amount or just masked by the yellow pigment, I don't know.






Her face






Her belly, which I actually posted in another thread, but here you can compare it to the belly coloration of some of the others:





She was actually getting ready to shed when I got her, which gave her a slightly greenish tint, too, but the current pics here were taken post-shed and more closely show her real color.

This young male has a distinctly silvery-blue coloration to him, with a red-orange head.  I'm not sure if this is a morph or not, but it is different from the normal Bandeds.  He, too, had recently shed when I took these pics.






His sides, showing color better






His belly-the black pigment appears to be diluted to blue-gray when compared to the belly of the first snake.






pitbulllady


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## Crysta (Jul 5, 2010)

I reeeeallly like that gold female.
What if you bred her to the super hypo male? 
Actually, maybe you should get another gold male too...  But i dont see a simlar male atm...so wouldnt the super hypo help with black reduction? which would be cool...
ohh i want one!!


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## pitbulllady (Jul 5, 2010)

CentipedeFreak said:


> I reeeeallly like that gold female.
> What if you bred her to the super hypo male?
> Actually, maybe you should get another gold male too...  But i dont see a simlar male atm...so wouldnt the super hypo help with black reduction? which would be cool...
> ohh i want one!!


It would depend on how her gene works, if it is recessive or co-dominant.  The hypo gene IS co-dominant, and since he is homozygous hypo, that means he only has the genes for hypo.   If the gold is recessive, I will get hypos that are all het for gold.  If it too is co-dominant, there's no telling how those offspring would turn out, since the two genes would basically combine and the offspring would show traits of both.

By the way, my big Northern female that had been shot died this morning:8o
She was fine last night, and ate two small Bluegills, but I found her dead earlier today when I went to clean the water bowl.  She was just lying there, coiled up, looking quite normal, but when I went to move her out of the way to put the bowl back in the cage, I realized she was stiff.  I'm assuming that it had something to do with her gunshot wound and she probably developed a very fast-acting peritonitis.  The other snakes which ate fish from the same pond all are fine, so I don't think it was related to the fish.

pitbulllady


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## Crysta (Jul 5, 2010)

aww I am sorry to hear pitbulllady!
I dont really see any reason to shoot snakes, it's horrible in my eyes. Like if they where going to eat it that would have been more proper, but mannn..
Although I dont want anyone eating their snakes, I am just saying it's a waste of a life if you try/do kill something and dont eat it... 

good luck with the breeding, it will be interesting to see how the babies will turn out.

Crysta


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