Nosy Faly Chameleons
Nosy Faly males are blue to turquoise, sprinkled with red and often broken up with white, and the whitest are the most sought after. Crosses with nearby locales are bred and sold and a young male's white is not settled until he matures, so check the line before buying.
About Nosy Faly
Named for a small island off the northwest coast of Madagascar, the Nosy Faly is a panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) locale. Only shallow water separates the mainland from this island, which sits a short way east of Nosy Be. The males are bought by keepers for their blue to turquoise bodies. These bodies are broken up with white and sprinkled with red, a look the hobby calls red rain. Because the locale turns up less often than Nosy Be, you should expect to look harder for a good one. The males with the most white are the most sought after.
Appearance
The base colour of an adult male ranges from blue to turquoise green and features red speckles, dots and bars. While many males have a lot of white between or under the colour, the most extreme animals are mostly white with red and blue showing through. Each animal has a different balance. Some males have little red and heavy white, while others show strong red banding and barely any white. Not every Nosy Faly shows white at all. Yellow along the jaw and at the corners of the mouth is typical.
You cannot tell a female's locale from her colour because they look like panther females of any locale in tan, brown, pink and peach. Juveniles of both sexes look alike. A young male's adult colour and the amount of white he keeps is not settled until he matures.
Genetics
Nosy Faly is a locale rather than a gene. Because the name simply shows where the founders of a line originated, there is no het, no super and no visual form to prove out. A Nosy Faly is the offspring of two Nosy Faly parents. Since females carry no locale colour and males vary as much as they do, the locale is proven by documented lineage.
Crosses with Nosy Be, Ambanja and Ambilobe are sold and bred, and a mixed line cannot be sorted back into its locales after the fact. Purity matters more than usual with this locale, because crossing with other forms has moved some captive lines away from the look of wild animals. Ask the seller for both parents and how far back their Nosy Faly lineage runs.