Why hasn't my one spot foxface got a proper spot?

[Mark Goode]

I've had this fellow for 3.5 years, and this is the closest he ever came to having a spot: a big black smudge. His colour seems good otherwise, and he certainly seems to have a good shape. Is he unique?

 

[Mark Goode]

Anybody?

 

[JumboShrimp]

Very, very healthy looking. The ones I have had in the past all liked to stay camouflaged, looking like bruised bananas. Whatever has given him an irregular spot pattern, I would say you are ahead of the game by having a healthy fish. By the way, I love the butterfly fish.

 

[Mark Goode]

Very, very healthy looking. The ones I have had in the past all liked to stay camouflaged, looking like bruised bananas. Whatever has given him an irregular spot pattern, I would say you are ahead of the game by having a healthy fish. By the way, I love the butterfly fish.

Sorry, the butterfly is actually a Singapore angel. She'll have been in the tank four years in June. I've been very lucky with her - by all accounts they are very difficult to keep, but she's been an enthusiastic feeder since day one.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Lol! That's why I couldn't quite place it. My bad.

 

[KrisReef]

Anybody?

I have been working on an appropriate answer that will make sense and possibly explain your question.

Simplest solution is that you have an outlier pigmentation individual. I have a blue tang (aka Dory) fish that also displays unstandard pigmentation so the fish is 60% black instead of the black bars that most have.

Foxface are special because they do often display stressed pigmentation that looks weird compared with the population, but your fish appears more normal and not showing a typical stress pattern, but actually has non standard black patch.

Otherwise it appears healthy.

If it was a clownfish someone might want to use it for breeding (artificial selection) to possibly develop a “designer fox.” There are many different clownfish morphs because they are a popular captive species.

 

[Mark Goode]

I have been working on an appropriate answer that will make sense and possibly explain your question.

Simplest solution is that you have an outlier pigmentation individual. I have a blue tang (aka Dory) fish that also displays unstandard pigmentation so the fish is 60% black instead of the black bars that most have.

Foxface are special because they do often display stressed pigmentation that looks weird compared with the population, but your fish appears more normal and not showing a typical stress pattern, but actually has non standard black patch.

Otherwise it appears healthy.

If it was a clownfish someone might want to use it for breeding (artificial selection) to possibly develop a “designer fox.” There are many different clownfish morphs because they are a popular captive species.

Thanks; that makes sense. I wonder if there are many of them? I don't find the black smudge very pretty, but I'm very fond of him - he was the first in the tank.

 

[JumboShrimp]

(Don't tell him that you and your friends call him "Smudgy", and he'll never know.)

 

[Mark Goode]

(Don't tell him that you and your friends call him "Smudgy", and he'll never know.)

I've renamed him 'Smudge'.