ventral fins

I know I've asked before, but they were my fish from pearlscale offspring, so the missing ventral fins were "expected", but today I went to my lfs to have a look (as you do), and they have had 2 shipments of angels, one lot were veils, very small and not much interest to me, the other batch were blushing (I think) but there was one that attracted me, it was really quite dark grey, I could see blue round its gills, again these were very small and poor quality, lots with missing ventrals etc,the one I was interested in had of course stubs for ventrals, might these have been damaged in shipment? or just poor quality fish? I wanted to offer it a home for a discount (of course), or should I just steer clear??

Down "sarth" we have very little variety of Angels, and I'm desperate for something new, I have my gorgeous blues which I'm totally in love with, but I'd love something like our cousins across the pond have!

I was just wondering if this little runt would be worth the challenge or should I leave well alone??

So to summarise your question is :-

Should I buy a small, deformed, poor quality, possibly diseased, runt from a tank containing many other fish that were missing ventrals etc. in the hope that it might blossom into something wonderful?

Do you really need someone to answer that for you ? Or are you just seeking confirmation that you made the right decision in leaving it where it was?

For what it's worth, if the fins are stubs rather than completely missing, it's possible that their absence is due to damage rather than genetic, but a fish that's in the sort of state you're describing is unlikely to grow into a show winning specimen no matter how much TLC you lavish on it.

put like that Rob, you're quite right why am I asking??? and more to the point why are they asking £7.50 for them??

I'll have to come and pay you a visit sometime I think!!

I'll have to come and pay you a visit sometime I think!!

That would be good, but as a good second best, I'm hoping that I should be in a position to ship to most parts of the UK, hopefully, sometime in the next few weeks!

oooooooooooooooooo excited now

Pterophyllum wrote:I'm hoping that I should be in a position to ship to most parts of the UK, hopefully, sometime in the next few weeks!

That sounds good. I like the idea of independent angelfish breeders supplying direct to customers, or trade. Most pet shop / aquatics stores I visit either don't stock, stock very little or stock very poor quality angelfish which is very disappointing.

Bridgegirl99, if you see an angel and you think 'wow, I'm having that', take some time to watch it. Ask a member of staff 'what do you know about this / these angel/s?' is a good place to start as they could point you in the direction of a more knowledgeable member of staff - after that discussion if you're happy, buy it - choose the one you want, don't let them lucky dip you. If you're a little unsure, leave the shop and consider going back another day to see how it's getting on. If you find that you're making excuses for it, walk away. If it's a cracking fish, you wouldn't be considering a discount unless you were buying quite a few.

...well fingers crossed. Might be able to bag a chocolate and koi Paraiba