Deformities in Apisto cacatuoides "triple red"

[degrassi]

I'm new to Apistos and bought 2 trios through a group order from out of town. Since recieving them I've wondered about a couple of them, mainly the male. His mouth looks deformed, long with his fins and "cheeks". Since i'm new to apistos, I thought he looked weird but wasn't 100% sure. I recently saw some of the same kind of apisto at a LFS and they definately looked different then mine. Here are a couple pics I took right after i added them to the tank a couple months ago. They aren't the best but it kind of shows the problems I'm talking about.

In this pic you are clearly see his weird mouth and "cheeks", also his dorsal fin is kind of bent.

This pic shows his bent dorsal a bit better. The back tip has a kink in it. I haven't seen any pics of apistos where their dorsals looked like that. His pectoral fins also have an agle to them. Definately not the clean,straight fins i've seen in pics.

So am I correct in thinking he doesn't look right?

 

[Apistt_ed]

yes, there are definitely deformities in your fish. This is probably from long term line-breeding.

 

[nightowl1350]

No expert, but could some of the fin problems be from fins "melting" during shipping? His colours look good, but I'm not sure I would pick him as a breeder unless you are prepared to destroy the whole spawn if they don't turn out right.

 

[degrassi]

I dont' think his fin problems are from "melting". I had another male that died shortly after recieving them that had the same problem. I have also talked with some other people that also got some apistos in the group order and some of them also showed similar problems. So i think its just a case of a breeder selling fish that should have been culled.

 

[fishfarm]

That's a cull for sure. Line breed Cacs are bad about have such deformaties and people just keep breeding them anyway. Cull any like that and never buy from that source again. Ken