Breeding and Strains: Zhen Zhou
Zhen Zhou:
ZZ variety how to identify:
- Flowerhorns are highly variable, even fish labelled in the same catagory can have very different looking features, and every part of the fish(listed below) can also vary from low to high grade, we will cover grades and quality in later articles, this is to just give basic guide of the ZZ fish catagory.
- ZZ is an abreviation for Zhēnzhū, which is a Mandarin word meaning "Pearl".
- Pictures speak better than words so below we are showing Aussie style ZZ flowerhorns, although ZZ batches can also produce faders I will cover them in a seperate article.
Early ancestry is thought to be Trimac crossed with various other fish later in time to gain pearls and improvements to script.
Traits to look for:
- Eyes: usually protrusive
Mouth:
- Lower jaw usually extends past top lip.
Body shape:
Generally rounded
Script:
- Variable(refer to script article in beginners section for details), however a tear drop(black marks around eyes, sometimes called dragon tears) which is seen in some fish is unique to ZZ.
Fins:
Dorsal, anal and tail: don't overlap.
Face/Head:
- Face can range from beaky to flat shape
Pearling:
- Varies from a little to completely covering fish, most common colours are shades of green and blue.
(Refer to all images above and below to see pearling variations)
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