My Malformed Female

I saw this girl at the LFS a few days ago. She was in a large tank with about 50 other females. She was defending a territory for herself under a large plastic leaf. She looked perfectly healthy other than the shape of her tail and fin. There was another female in the tank that had similar deformities although not as extreme. Anyway, I couldn't resist getting her and when the sales person put the wrong girl into the bag I didn't have the heart to put one back so I ended up getting them both. Right now she is in a small isolation aquarium. She has been eating well and pooping well for almost a week. I have just introduced the other female into my community aquarium and when I'm sure that introduction has gone well, I will try to intrduce this girl. I have no problem keeping her in a separate tank if she does not get along with the others. Has anyone seen anything like her before?

Another pic:

How interesting!! It looks like her anal fin just grew that way, and wasn't bitten - the scales wouldn't have grown that way too. Anyways, if she swims and eats fine, I'll bet she thinks she's normal, and isn't bothered by her deformity. Pretty girl.

it looks like she was bitten by something and survived she's very cool though

Awww she's lovely, I like the shade of blue

Hope the introductions go well and they all get on

to my untrained eye, it looks like someone took a big chomp out of her!!!!

It's a birth defect. A breeder would have culled her, but a wholesaler just sent it to the lps. Another buck.

I agree that it's a birth defect because as Julie mentioned, the scales are grown that way too and also because there was another one similar to her in the tank. You'd have to have some pretty amazing water quality to heal from a bite like that! She's a really nice girl though and I'm glad she wasn't culled. Thanks Joby, I'll update about the introduction next week!

z.

She is a lovely colour when I sort out my Tank probs I would love a girl just like her she would matchthe male i already have!

The defect just adds character

What ever you do..don't breed her. She will pass along the defect. It is far enough back, her ovaries might not be affected, but breeding her would be bad for any line that came from her.

lolly said:

She is a lovely colour when I sort out my Tank probs I would love a girl just like her she would matchthe male i already have!

The defect just adds character

Click to expand...

Thanks ) That's exactly what I think!!!

Don't worry, f250fisherman, I would never breed her. I think that's the reason I was meant to have her because I'm not interested in breeding at all. I just like her for her character. I am always responsible about animal welfare and would never breed an animal that has a defect and might result in the suffering of other animals!

z.