The cobra gene pool is indistinguishable from the mosaic gene pool but does provide the addition of the cobra body pattern, which is exhibited by the males. You can find many shades of red, pink, gray, brown, green, blue, turquoise, aquamarine, yellow, purple, plum and orange (just to name a few) in this gene pool without ever making an out-cross. The tail pattern phenotypes include; clear, clear multi, tiger, tiger multi, leopard, leopard multi, grass and grass multi. (To date, I have not run across the snakeskin tail pattern in the cobras (or mosaics) unless an out-cross is made with a red tail (albino or regular) strain. This is not to say that snakeskin is not in there, I just have not yet noticed it.)
Colors and tail patterns that differ from the rather nondescript yellow males found in the Kcobra20 file can show up in the F1 generation, but most often will appear in the F2-F4 generations. (This is not etched in stone. Sometimes AZ will give you nothing but yellow from a pair even with repeated tries using TransWarp. Using another male or female will usually resolve this situation.) Fishing in the cobra gene pool takes patience, but the reward of finding all of the colors and tail patterns make the search worthwhile.
Let's select a pair from the Kcobra20 file and see what AZ has to offer us this time.
I selected M25 and F09 at random. Here is M25.
He is a leopard canary (as evidenced by the white rectangle in his dorsal fin).
This pair produced these males in the F1 for us to play around with.
We see three colors in this batch; canary (like dad) canary with orange, and one male that my color naming utility calls "pumpkin burnt orange". All are leopards. Since my approach this session is to play "with" AZ (not "against" AZ), let's select the orange male and mate him with one of his sisters and see what we get in the F2.
Here are the males produced in this F2 generation.
We've lost the yellow with red color and retained the leopard tail pattern.
Following AZ's lead (lookie, lookie, leopard orange!), we will select one of the orange males to pair with one of his sisters and see what we get in the F3 generation. (Stabilizing a strain of non-heterozygous leopards from this batch might be relatively easy.)
Here are the males in the F3 generation.
We still have two colors, but only one tail pattern, leopard (note the white rectangle in the dorsal fin of all the males). Again, we select one of the orange males to pair with a sister to produce an F4 generation.
Here are the males in the F4 generation.
AZ wants to give us "leopard pumpkin burnt orange". We'll take it.
We select a pair from the F4 to produce the F5 generation.
Here are the males in the F5 generation.
Looks like we are almost there.
My experience tells me that since we have not seen a tail pattern different from this leopard phenotype, this specific line is homozygous for the leopard tail pattern. Using TransWarp, we can select a random pair from the F5 and mate them multiple times. If, every time we run the pair through TransWarp, they produce males that are leopard pumpkin burnt orange, then AZ (not just me) considers this strain stabilized. There is no need to save the broods produced. Let's save the pair to their own file for easy retrieval and mate them multiple times. If we see no deviation in the phenotype produced we can consider this strain fixed.
Here are the males produced by the tested pair's seventh brood.
I believe this strain to be stabilized and I know AZ agrees with me. (Seven times, come on, this strain is fixed!) We can now file this brood as "Cobra leopard pumpkin burnt orange stock" and consider our work done.
Here is the record of the crosses made to stabilize this strain as shown in my "items" folder.
I personally think that the leopard phenotype is one of the most attractive tail patterns in the cobra and mosaic gene pool. The colors that accompany this phenotype seem much brighter and more intense. However, I cannot abide that darn white rectangle in the dorsal fin. I have been able to create a few garnet red and navy blue leopard strains that do not demonstrate this white rectangle. I also have a few strains on file that have a color other than white in the rectangular area. These strains are exceptions. When the leopard tail pattern is produced in yellow albino strains, the white rectangle is not as apparent, but is still there.
Let's go back to the Kcobra file and see if we can find another tail pattern to use in an out-cross with one of the strains we have on file. (I really do not like working with that white rectangle.) Back to the Kcobra20 .fsh file and another strain of cobras coming up.
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