Albino Paradise Fish With Bent Spine

[cheeseb0y]

These are bad pics, I'll improve them as this fish grows. It's about an inch long right now. Seems to be doing fine, although it does have some problems if it has to compete for food and it doesn't swim quite right. It was at my LFS for about three months with no buyers. I asked nicely and my LFS knows I'll give it a better home than most people, so I got it at 75% off.

First up, we have the bent spine:


Secondly, in this pic you can just barely see the giant indentation in its head:

[Paul]

Nice save. You should name him Quasimodo. 

[cheeseb0y]

Thanks. I've always kind of wanted a Blue Paradise Fish, but they tend to be a bit too aggro for the tanks I want to keep them in. I don't think this one is going to give me any aggression problems. 

It already has a name. The name (---a-- Fish) is, unfortunately, very crude and politically incorrect. Quasimodo, while he possessed a perfectly good name, had a hunchback. My cute little ---a-- Fish has a bend much lower and in the other direction. The spine isn't really the main draw for me anyway. What I'm really interested in is to see how this fish is going to develop in regards to the giant dent in its skull.   

This is my only aquatic oddity right now, so expect frequent updates.

[cheeseb0y]

Update ~7 months later. Colors are coming in better, and all the physical deformities are pretty much the same, just getting bigger along with the rest of the fish. The dent in its head is a lot more noticeable now, but still difficult to photograph. I'll try and get some decent close-ups of it soon. I just transferred it back into my main planted community tank from my qt Rubbermaid tub, as the fish it had aggression issues with just had to be put down.