# what is a a "ghost" angelfish?



## football mom (Feb 19, 2006)

I've been an African cichlid hobbyist for about 12 years now, breeding Malawans, Tangs, and some Victorians, and sort of by accident have acquired some nice angelfish stock.
A pair of koi, a smokey pair,and a platinum pair with just a couple of black patches on them. The male platinum is pearlscale. 
I have been told the platinum fish are "ghost", "marble" and "clown", depending on the person looking at them. What is mean by each of these terms? I'm confused!
I have raised successful spawns from the smokey pair, have first spawn from platinums in the hatching jar, and am still waiting for the koi.
I must admit, I have been having fun with raising them, much more of a challenge than my mouth brooding mbuna!


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

"Ghost (S/+): Ghost angelfish carry a single copy of the stripeless gene (S), along with a wild type gene (+). Ghost angelfish show no body stripes such as those seen in wild type (silver) angelfish giving them a largely 'clean' appearance."


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## football mom (Feb 19, 2006)

OK, thanks, that does clear up the term "ghost" for me.
I think there may be some "ghosts" in the older smokey spawns, then, and also some zebras: they have 5 narrow vertical stripes all along the body. Also a couple that are nearly black, and silver with bluish tinge at the head. I'm keeping some to breed later on down the road.
I'm still not sure about what makes a fish a "clown", though.
"Marble" is pretty easy, except how much marbleing has to be present?
The two platinum fish in question have patches of black...one has one patch on the side of it's head, and the other has two, one large patch in it's dosal fin, and one small one on it's flank. The pearlscale is platinum colored throughout, with pale blue veining on it's fins. The non-pearly one has the pale blue fin veining, but has a very faint goldish tinge on top of it's head and in front of it's dorsal fin.
Thanks a lot for any information, and sorry for the long post!


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

I'd Google angelfish phenotypes, and you'll get a whole break down on all of the variants. It might even be on this sites library I just didn't look. Nothing wrong with long posts or questions that's what the forums are here for


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## football mom (Feb 19, 2006)

I did google search and didn't get clear information, but I didn't use the word "phenotype"! Thank for the tip!


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

http://www.theangelfishsociety.org/phen ... zebra.html


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## football mom (Feb 19, 2006)

Thanks for the link! My smokey pair have produced at least 4 distinct color patterns that I can discern. It will be fun to raise and breed some of them. I already have 20+ tanks, I think I'm gonna need more!


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