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Angels loosing black lines

Sound indeed strange.. Watch it closely for a while how they behave towards eachother. If angels are intimidated and or chased around by some other tank mates. Loosing color could be a sign of stress. they might hide in the shaded spots to find protection. I had the standard (wild) colored angelfish for a very long time in the past and actualy more noticed, the more planted the tank is the more shade they have an should only contribute to more natural behaivor and color. Only have seen them loose color due to stress, which can have different causes, like sicknes or parasites. They are also very sensitive fish and easily intimidated by others. Like what i've often seen in the past with people not realizing (or not knowing) never to keep fin nibbling barbs and angels together and did it anyway, so the angles got chased around by the barbs all night long and just not feeling safe.
 
The "standard" wild-type angelfish is nowhere near the wild type anymore - they are long-time, captive bred strains. Which I actually find a good thing, since this mean less hunt for wild specimens.
But it also means, that there a really a lot of different strains in trade. Some of which are more or less always "weak" in their stribes, some are missing one of the stribes, some have "broken" stribes, some can actually deliberately "fade" stribs (most strains actually can do this, more or less) - if you check, you will see comercial "standard wild" are really very different in appearance. The "standard" red eye is also very little "standard" in some strains. Body-shape, too, has become rather elongated in some strains.
I noticed this years ago, and have tried to breed on "elite"fish, to get the standard back to "standard" - if you follow me.
- so your "fading" of stribes can very well be a perfectly "natural" thing for your angels. That said, it could also be a sign of stress, of some kind, so keep an eye on them.....
 
P.S. not that this sounds like the issue, you have - but if you raise fry of "standard" wild-type angels in full light, 24 hours.....they will not develop their stribes. If this goes on for long enough, stribes will not develop ever, even if fish is then moved to night/day conditions.
Some of the other colour variations of angelfish, are liht dependant too, actually....
 
That's a very good point Mick.. :thumbup: I didn't realize nor gave it a thought that my Angels fish experiences are about 25 years out of date it seems.. Even if it feels like yesterday, i can imagine lots have changed since. And already back in the day wild caught was a rarity, breeding aint that difficult. 🙂 I never had wild caught angel fish not even 30 years ago. But it seems they are still very moody species..
 
Agree with Mick, unless you search out breeders such as Steve Rybicki (who has for many years imported various wilds to strengthen/improve his "domestic" strains), angels seem to be decreasing in quality - even compared to 5 years ago, the commercial shipments that arrive in the shops are showing poor breeding practise with mostly stunted & deformed fish - this is predominantly poor water quality!
never mind conformation or breed standard ...

I suspect your fish don't have strong expression of their stripes, they "turn them on" when excited and the more faded version is just a relaxed fish ...
better/more photos would help, but fish appear to be standard fin type, possibly "zebra" - any idea on age? what size & how much change since you purchased?

I keep forgetting to say how much I like your latest scape! well done 😀
 
Just checked your journal, Martin (sorry, I don't usually have much time for journals).
From the patterns in fins of your angelfish, I am pretty sure they have some 'zebra'genes in them, though mostly appear 'wild' type.
As said, there are really many forms. I am quite sure, a lot of the 'wild'stribed are actually "waste products" from production of more exotic colour types. The 'wild'stribed genes are dominant to most other colour-genes, therefore (because of Mendell's genetic laws)a quite high petcentage of offspring from the exotic colour-forms will be "un-desired" in colour - and a high percentage of those, will appear 'wild'stribed (but can have "hidden' colours genetically). I have no doubts the "un-desired" are sold, though.....
Some resessive ("hidden") colour-genes actually supress appearance of stribes in dominant appearance ("visual appearance). This could very well be the case in your fish. Only intense breeding/cross-breeding can reveal the resessive colour-genes.....but THAT's another story........:wacky:
 
I am very sure my Angels are not perfect bred for nice genetic colour or shape in any way what so ever, I just like them to look natural (don't have to be Altums, they are to sensitive) . I bought mine from a big batch which were in my LFS (where I always go) for a couple of months already and so far they didn't show any aggression towards each other, they stay nice and close in a group and like to come to the front as soon as someone is coming to the tank, they even follow my hand in front of the glass and eat out of my hand.
I'll keep an eye on them, but I don't expect anything weird, I guess it's just a genetic mishap.
 
sorry didn't mean to rag on your angels 😳
- rereading it does come across as pretty rude (not my intention :sorry:)


They are great fish as they're so interactive with people - they'll easily sort out who's likely to feed them & who they should just ignore 😉
 
alto said:
sorry didn't mean to rag on your angels 😳
- rereading it does come across as pretty rude (not my intention :sorry:)


They are great fish as they're so interactive with people - they'll easily sort out who's likely to feed them & who they should just ignore 😉
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I didn't reed your reply as rude, I simply reed it as help to what might cause my angels to loose their stripes, nothing more....
 
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