I was lucky enough a while back to get this guy from Denny and Kathy Rimes.

As far as I know he was born at Next World Exotics along with another male that displayed an almost identical ladder tail. The other male was purchased by Mr. Gray Rushin and then later sold to another person. When I spoke with both Gray and Denny the question was always "Do you think It's genetic"?

For not being arabesque or motley the tail is almost unreal,

but what is even more intriguing is the fact that there was one more in the same litter that displayed almost the exact same tail... something there???


During the 05' breeding season I had an extra possible het. female. This female also retained a very light backround color that I love and thought It would compliment the males color very well.


I decided to put him in with her and see what happened. He got straight to work and everything went right by the book. On 109 days P.O.S. she gave birth to a beautiful litter of 13 babies, no slugs, and no still born or deformed.

I was exited about having the litter but was also very anxious to see if the tail would be passed on...as I dug through the slimy pile'o'babies there it was!!! Although many of the babies displayed aberrancy's (all in the tail) only one, a male, came out with a tail that closely resembled the sire of the litter.

I'm pretty confident at this point that this trait can and will be passed on (in varying degree's) to the offspring. I'm anxious now to breed the original male, possibly to a different feamle this year and hopefully get a better understanding of whats going on. The babies are all doing great and are showing nice colors like both of their parents. As of now I've held back the entire litter, but am unsure If I will be able to due to more babies expected this comming season...we'll see!


Adriel Cortez

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