Half-black Paradise Fish

[RockyRaccoon]

My father bought this fish as a light blue paradise fish about a month ago. Now, overnight, he has changed half of his body to a very dark blue... maybe even black. Is this the half-black paradise i think it is, or will he soon change the rest of his body color? There is literally a nearly perfect vertical line in the middle of his body separating the light blue and black.

I tried to do some research on this and found very little... although, I was able to find this one site (http/aqualandpetsplus.com/Gourami,%20Paradise.htm) that refers to the half-black paradise as "very unusual".


So now, I'm trying to convince my dad to move the fish out of the 2.5 gallon bowl and into a ten gallon tank to breed him. I don't know where I'm going to be able to find a female paradise fish though, they seem impossible to come by.

If I do breed him, should the fry have the same half-black feature?

Here are some pictures of the fish...(apologies for the bad camera)


[URL="http/www.geocities.com/doof322/265974592389_400.jpg"]http/www.geocities.com/doof322/265974592389_400.jpg[/URL]
[URL="http/www.geocities.com/doof322/265974623237_400.jpg"]http/www.geocities.com/doof322/265974623237_400.jpg[/URL]
[URL="http/www.geocities.com/doof322/265974718213_400.jpg"]http/www.geocities.com/doof322/265974718213_400.jpg[/URL]

This is probably the best one...
[URL="http/www.geocities.com/doof322/265974654341_400.jpg"]http/www.geocities.com/doof322/265974654341_400.jpg[/URL]

 

[Biulu]

Looks like a nice fish. If I am not mistaken and paid attention in genetics class, you could take a normal female paradise fish, and then cross father and daughter to get the half black fish back. Then choose several half black females and keep breeding these with their grandfather.

 

[MarcusN]

Looks like a nice fish. If I am not mistaken and paid attention in genetics class, you could take a normal female paradise fish, and then cross father and daughter to get the half black fish back. Then choose several half black females and keep breeding these with their grandfather.

Ol'a

depending on the trait, if it is recessive or dominant will make alot of matter.

try spawning the half black with a normal female, cross one female from the F1 generation (half black X normal) with the half black father.

half black X normal should make a half black Genotype if the trait is recessive, then you cross to the father.
if it is dominant then you see the half black young in the F1 generation.