What are your thoughts on long finned fish?

[Hybridfish7]

I personally like some of them. You truly have to 'perfect' a long finned fish to make it look good... Some just look like you pulled on their fins really hard, others have nice big fluffy tails. Some long finned fish aren't too good... such as the butterfly koi or long finned clownfish you see often...
<--- here's what I mean by 'pulled on their fins really hard' ------v

and by 'perfect' I mean develop ones that actually look good, like these:

<-- I can't wait for this strain of clown to come out, I'll save all the money I need to for it. The fins are nice and fluffy unlike the ragged fins of other longfin clowns, and also phantom clownfish get electric blue outlines to their white bands as they get older.
I understand the risks that come with long finned fish, such as fin nipping, fin rot, and poor swimming.
As far as I know, long finned fish (except bettas) swim just fine as long as you aren't blasting a current at them.
Simple solution to the fin nipping thing- just don't keep them with fish that are known to nip fins! with social fish like long finned serpae tetras that's another thing. I like how they look, and they seem to be OK with not doing too much damage to eachother. As for fin rot- things like long finned clownfish, koi, oscars, and others, most of them are quite expensive, so I imagine any sensible person would give something of such value the best care they can.

 

[Hybridfish7]

here's some good examples of phantom clowns:

beautiful... to me they'd look even better with the big fluffy white outlined fins.

 

[NathanKS]

I think that they will become more popular as time goes on and breeders understanding of the genes involved improves.

I personally like the look and have a few long finned koi in my pond. I think it is very important though to look at the animals and see how the mutation affects them. There are some long fin koi that I dislike because the fins have gotten too long or the fins are now misshaped.

 

[L3CTR0N]

Some are kinda redundant. I sometimes see longfin tiger barbs and I think to myself, "Why longfin tiger barbs? They'll nip their fins short anyway!

 

[Jmart159]

No thanks. Not for me.

 

[FishEZ]

I have bred long-finned rosy barbs and was not impressed with the numbers that came out with the long-finned trait. Many of the fry were just plain short finned (albeit they carry the genes) but can't be sold as long-finned. Maybe with the more expensive and desired species it is worth it, but not for common varieties like tiger barbs and rosy barbs.

 

[justarn]

It suites some fish, Betta spring to mind.
This thread reminds me of that long finned Asian arowana, amazing looking.

 

[FLA]

This is not my picture I found it here https://www.marineaquariumsa.com/th...tle-for-“guppy-of-the-marine-aquarium”.47889/ But I thought that was a cool long fin. I was a purist for a long time. Then I started thinking about cool wild sports like gold gar and lightning maroon clown fish. Just because someone was able to isolate and reproduce a trait shouldn't cheapen the trait. All in all it just depends on the fish.

The more breeding I do the more impressed I am with different sports. I have a ton of respect for goldfish breeders. Those traits are so difficult to keep stable. It is fascinating all of the things hidden in the genome of fish we have been keeping for years. I had never seen a long fin tiger barb in person until 2015 now they are relatively available in the US. That is a fish we have been keeping in the hobby for over 60 years. I think that is really cool. For me it all depends on the fish as to if it is worth perpetuating. I have seen some cool long fin oscars and some pretty rough ones. I dislike the "long fin" BGK. I don't even think it should count. I think vampire and fire cracker sword tails are really nice. I would like to see some long fin catfish besides cories. I am interested in what a long fin arowana looks like. The pictures I have seen of long fin loaches are not my favorite though.

By the way the longfin rosy and long fin red glass barbs I have bred come in true. Usually Long fins show incomplete dominance in my experience. So you can eventually get to a homozygous long fin.

 

[krichardson]

No thanks. Not for me.

Same here but I do like those black and white koi.

 

[Hybridfish7]

I would like to see some long fin catfish besides cories.

wish granted.

<---long fin bristlenose pleco
even though these do look like you pulled on their fins too hard, I like that they kinda look like dragons to me (just me) and I like how their fins wave around when they munch on algae.
all long finned fish with the super long wavy fins kind of remind me of chinese dragons, especially koi.

<--there's even green dragon plecos.
I don't really like the colors on them but I do like their fins.

what did yall think about the clownfish? the (long fin) phantoms, that is.

I think long finnage does come to a point where it's way too much.

I bet this poor goldfish can't even swim that much (or too fast).
plecos don't really swim too much, they regenerate their fins REALLY fast, and they don't get disease too easily, so I feel like the long finned plecos are OK.
in my experience, my pleco tears his fins all the time (for some unknown reason, there isn't anything sharp in the tank and my BP's mouth is a triangle so he can't bite) and they regrow in a few days.