VERY little red scalation on head and legs...but it's really cool. Reminds me of customized "blacked-out" sports cars. Wonder what the parents looked like?
No, I doubt it. Melanistic usually means all black, or absence of color. If I'm remembering correctly, @allegraf raises quite a few black RF tortoise babies.
Not me, I hatched one rather colorless one and kept it for kicks. Let me dig through the yard and see what he looks like now. I generally breed for high colors.
Garden State Tortoise... https://www.gardenstatetortoise.com/ - Chris Leone - bought the pair shown.. not sure if he still has or if they produced for him.