Chimera and other Oddball colors

[RyanTheFIshGuy]

Hey Guys!
So my question today involves "rare" colors. This includes copper, chimera, harlequin, piebald, etc. I guess what im trying to ask is, are these a certain breed that you can get or are these randomly "accidents" in eggs? (Hopefully that makes sense..lol)

 

[keiko]

Chimera is a pure chance, it means the animal has more than one genetically distinct group of cells. The others are different color types and thus should be possible to breed, I think? Coppers seem to be getting more common at least here in Europe and are easy to breed.

 

[auntiejude]

Chimera is a type of mosaic, with 2 distinct genotypes in one animal, e.g. half leucistic, half wildtype.

Piebalds and harlequins are just a particular type of marking on a leucistic (or wildtype), and will have some genetic link. However, if there was a surefire way to breed them someone would have done it by now. They are usually just flukes.

Copper is a definite colour morph, and is a type of tyrosine-positive albino, probably producing pheomelanin (red/orange pigment) instead of eumelanin (brown/black pigment). This is a genetic trait and can be bred quite easily as it follows the normal patterns of inhertance.

 

[RyanTheFIshGuy]

Thanks for the info! I just think they are so neat. I may get a copper in the future