Phantom

The Phantom ball python is an incomplete dominant mutation discovered in 2005 by Ralph Davis Reptiles. The Phantom alters both colour and pattern. According to Ralph Davis, the Phantom was a gene that “kinda happened by accident”.

Some time around 2001, Ralph raised an odd female African import and bred her to his Goblin male because she had a similar, though less aberrant, look to her and he was interested in pushing his Goblin project further. The pairing produced offpring that resembled the African import, as well as Normals and what Ralph calls “Goblin Markers”. According to Davis, “Markers” had a lot of the Goblin traits in the sides and the belly scales.

A year later, Ralph made the same pairing and got the same results, leaving him “stoked” at the idea that the import may be genetic, but they were nothing special in his eyes. The “Markers” were what had Ralph’s attention as he figured they came from the Goblin father, meaning his Goblin project was moving forward.

For the next two years, Ralph kept everything that came out of the Goblin x “Phantom” breedings, including the Normals, with plans to breed the Goblin male back to all of his daughters. In 2003, he gave the Goblin male the season off from breeding, and with the belief that Phantom was incomplete dominant, would breed it into another incomplete dominant morph to produce some combos.

He went with a Lesser male to breed to two Phantom females without high expectations because “the Phantom is so drab looking”, but both clutches produced Blue Eyed Leucistic ball pythons.

In 2005, Ralph bred one of the BluEL males to a Phantom female and produced Super Phantoms, BluELs, Lessers and Phantoms. In the same year, he also paired a male Phantom that had “Goblin Markers” to a female Phantom and produced a Super Phantom with “Goblin Markers”. ^[2]