Thanks man, yeah genetics is pretty complex and to be honest my knowledge is pretty basic. The little I know is what I remember from high school, college vet. tech courses and some more recent knowledge in dealing with breeding ball pythons.
I gave the thread the once over and perhaps I'm overly skeptical but I feel there's gotta be at least one other kind of fish involved in BP creation. I will admit Chrisplosion is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to hybrids but I also know he's a fan of BP's and if it was so easy to achieve I think he'd have bred some himself. I know he was working on Kirin/Killin BP's and have actually been waiting to hear back from him on his progress as I wanted some for myself as they're presently no where to be found for me, so perhaps that's another reason why he hasn't bred BP's. Then again it could also come down to how hard it is to source an actual Midas for the breeding attempt. For while there maybe a lot of physical similarities between Red Devils and Midas, perhaps there's something in their genetics that makes breeding to a Synspillum capable of producing BP's that doesn't exist in RD's. I will also admit I'm surprised that the body gets so deformed from breeding two similarly bodied fish and as you said perhaps there is something tied to the choice in sexes for the breeding. I say this because there was also a thread where a guy bred a Syn to an RD and got a short bodied fish with Syn colors. Makes you wonder just how many factors need to be considered in the breeding of any hybrid
