I bought a lovely blue marble pearlscale -- prebreeder size -- at an auction Sunday, & discovered a missing ventral when I released it into the tank. I've been kicking myself ever since because I should have been watching more closely. I was planning on using this fish in my breeding program, but am not sure I want to perpetuate a glaring fault. I cull youngsters as soon as I see missing ventrals...any deformity, actually. I'm asking this question in the genetics section because I'd like to know if this is genetic & will it be passed on? If so, can anyone tell me what percentage of fish might have missing ventrals in a spawn?
Rats!! I didn't have to mortgage my firstborn child, but I still paid good money for this fish.