longfin angel - what's going on?

[GaryE]

I just saw an ad for longfin angels. The fish had fins almost as developed as any good, undamaged wild caught angel I've ever kept. Breeders with a focus on colour and scale deformities allowed their angels to become stubby wrecks that were all body. And now, natural fin growth is being sold as a new thing. Yikes.

Maybe robust, muscular Discus will follow. The red, orange, pink and pigeon blood ruins rule now, and maybe they can breed those back to looking good. Great wonders await, said the grumpy old man who thinks form is as important as colour...

Somewhere in nature, the Gary E rantfish lurks.

 

[Back in the fold]

Like mine ?

 

[fishorama]

Aren't "long fin" angels also called veil tailed? I can't keep up with all the variations. I don't mind some of the "colors" like black or koi but I'm not a fan of scale deformities or veiltails...but that's just my personal limits. I still like the wild coloration & fins best.

 

[GaryE]

These had no veiltails, just normal fins, no deformities. They were black colour types, but with natural shaped fins twice the height of the body.

I knew one pet store owner who wanted stumpy angels because "nice" ones cost more to ship undamaged.

 

[Back in the fold]

I’ve seen those stumpy Angels around but I thought they were culls or should have been .

 

[Magnum Man]

playing with the angels??? local pet store, had glo angels last time I was in there for frozen foods.... oooh... maybe glo silver dollars... glo sting rays???

maybe nice fins is just pushing that long fin gene, or is it just the 2, that are extended??? don't want to hear it's ok for angels, and not ok for plecos...

 

[GaryE]

I think there's a misunderstanding about the longfin genetics. Here is an old picture of a wild caught Peruvian angel I had - part of a group of scalare I kept for a very long time. I sent them to a good home when I moved east.
Long fins in angels aren't linebreeding. It's what they are supposed to look like. Bad linebreeding has taken it out of them.
There are some linebred forms with twisted up fins - they lack the impressive lines of 'real' angels. They can be nasty fish, like their domestic counterparts, but they are elegant.