Strange Gold Tiger Barb

[onidrase]

I picked up a few golden tiger barbs from the LFS to make some company of the surviving regular tiger barbs which got picked off from some sort of bacterial disease. All the other regular tiger barbs when I went back were dead, so I went across the street and all they had were golden tiger barbs, so I decided why the heck not, and picked some up.

3 of the 4 of them look pretty typical to me, but then there's the fourth one, it acts just like the others, but something is just different. It has no stripes, you can almost see its internal organs, and you can definitely see its gills. It certainly looks sickly, but its not being picked on, and it swims normally with the group, and it eats normally, it just looks so bizarre.

I'll try and get some pictures soon, but you know how tiger barbs are. Never stop moving till they're fat and content.

Does anything immediately come to mind by the description? Maybe some sort of mutation? (it looks almost like a red glass barb only in a tiger barbs body ) or is it sick, perhaps? anything?

Thanks much

 

[This Old Spouse]

Looking forward to photos ...

 

[creeker]

Sounds to me like the oddball is a Gold Blushing or Albino Blushing Tiger Barb.

 

[onidrase]

Looking forward to photos ...

Here's the best I can get with them moving around so much. A bit blurry, but it shows the main features, really red in the gill area, tan around the body, no visible stripes.

 

[creeker]

Yep, looks like a Gold Blushing to me. The red on the gills is what they consider the blush.

 

[three-fingers]

That's a genetic defect, the fish is missing its gill covers. It should be fine .

As said, it is usually referred to as "blushing", blushing angels are common around me, not a big fan tbh, gill covers probably evolved for a reason.

 

[creeker]

That's a genetic defect, the fish is missing its gill covers. It should be fine .

As said, it is usually referred to as "blushing", blushing angels are common around me, not a big fan tbh, gill covers probably evolved for a reason.

I thought that "blushing" fish just had a lack of pigment in the gill covers, allowing the gills to show through, not an absence of the gill cover itself.

 

[onidrase]

That's a genetic defect, the fish is missing its gill covers. It should be fine .

As said, it is usually referred to as "blushing", blushing angels are common around me, not a big fan tbh, gill covers probably evolved for a reason.

It has gill covers, they're just clear. Thanks, though, it's good to know it's not sickly or something