angelfish with 3 front fins/feelers

**jimmi** · 09-06-2013, 01:49 PM

Hello,

Long time reader always looking for advice and finding great answers here. Thanks for that!

I have been looking for information on this for a while but yet am unable to find anything relating to it. (sorry if I did happen to miss it somewhere)

I have a really beautiful blue angelfish, that happens to have 3 front fins/feelers. It had 3 when I got it and thought one may have split somehow. Now that it is getting bigger I am able to see that it looks like it just has 3 of them. They are all seperate and do not connect at the base. I think it looks neat, but I am wondering if it is bad for the fish?(seems to be in great health) and is that a common defect? Anyone I am asking local has never seen it before.

Thanks for looking, and any advice or info would be great!
Have a wonderful day!aq1.jpg aq2.jpg aq3.jpg aq4.jpg

**fishmommie** · 09-06-2013, 03:25 PM

thanks for sharing photos. Beautiful angel. Interesting about the feeler.

**Byron** · 09-06-2013, 04:56 PM

Genetic defects/oddities do occur in fish. I've no idea what might cause this, but I wouldn't worry. If the fish is acting normal, eating, swimming, etc, it is probably not any the worse off.

Byron.

**madagascariensis** · 09-06-2013, 09:51 PM

Its a beautiful And healthy Looking Fish. Unless you see the fin bothering it in some way, I wouldn't worry

**Gesp56** · 09-07-2013, 11:13 PM

It could be a genetic defect due to inbreeding, a defect that just randomly occurred but is not linked to inbreeding, or this could be the result of two eggs improperly fusing together while they were still inside the parent fish. Basically this fish could be the equivalent of conjoined twins that occur sometimes in human babies. Its very interesting and rare. Be sure to keep him/her healthy, definitely a neat fish!!

Be sure to watch for any odd behavior. If this fish is the result of two eggs conjoining then it could have more than one of each organ. The head looks alittle more bulbous then most angelfish. This could be the result of more than one brain being present or two brains that didn't completely merge.

Very interesting fish. Its very expensive but if you ever get the chance I would have genetic tests run on it to see if more than one set of DNA is present.

**talldutchie** · 09-08-2013, 06:08 AM

I've seen genetic defects like this once or twice when I bred guppies. Those never reached adulthood. Interesting to see that this one has.

**wgoldfarb** · 09-08-2013, 02:11 PM

Hmmm....perhaps it's Pterophyllum jimmiae? ;-)

**jimmi** · 09-11-2013, 05:07 PM

He seems very healthy and happy. Not sure what kind he is.

Got him from a local breeder.

I am posting a pic, the 3 fin fish, and the stripe one came from the same tank. When they were little they looked exactly the same with the stripes. As they got older the 3 fin lost his stripes and became the blue colour he is now.

IMAG1727.jpg

**philthy** · 01-17-2014, 04:47 PM

awesome fish, would be cool to breed it and see if you can replicate it. I imagine in you could bread a healthy strain with 3 or even 4 fins it you could earn some sort of merit or money, maybe you could name it after yourself, that'd be cool. haha, but more importantly, do it for science!