Here is a photo of a Hypo Snow, AKA Coral Snow. All of the ones that I produce are very pink, like was stated above. The other photo is a comparison photo of an Amel, Amel Lava, and Lava hypo. There is a difference between an Amel Lava and Amel, within clutches, but an Amel Lava does look very similar to other orange Amels. In this comparison photo, the Amel Lava looks much more like a Lava than the Amel.
I have some Hypo Amels and they are all very bright Orange, and very shiny, like a Sunglow would be. I do not agree that Amel mask Hypo, but if you don’t know it, or if you compare them to other amels they may look very similar. Hypo does reduce the black, but it also has an effect on the other colors as well, so when it is combined with Amel, the amel is usually much oranger. In the examples above with the Amel Lava, the clutch mates are Amel Okeetee, which are very red, so the difference is very clear. It is not so clear if you compare them to other Amels that are more orange.
I think the only way that you can recognize a Hypo Amel, is if you know what genes the parents are carrying and when you compare them to clutch mates. A breeding like Amel het Hypo X Amel het Hypo, will most likely produce a recognizable phenotype of Hypo Amel in the clutch. A breeding of Hypo het Amel X Hypo Het Amel, would produce known Hypo Amels, because all amels would have to be homo for hypo as well.
It will be very interesting to see what a Hypo Opal looks like. Opals in general are beginning to look very, very pink these days with selective breeding. I don’t see how we could improve on them, but you might get a Neon Pink Opal!!
