Would you prejudice buying a red arowana because it has PLJ?

FOSSILFISH

New Member
Is it enough to deter you from buying an arowana if it has PLJ?
If so, do you think it's necessary for the farms to stop breeding arow's with this type of deficiency?
Do you think that PLJ reduces the resale price and the quality of an arowana to a point that it should not be traded on the market?
 

AroNoob

Member
Yes, sorry to say but I am pretty shallow. On the other hand if I raised an arowana up and it developed PLJ, I wouldn't rush to sell it.

Ron
 

JMorash

Moderator
Same, I'm picky. I don't think the farms intend on breeding arowana with PLJ. I think the goal is to breed a fish that has perfect color, shape, scale structure, fin structure, and overall with no defects. Yet the battle for one good trait, may bring out a bad one from time to time.

Often you can't tell with fish of young age, and sometimes it straighten itself out. That's why young fish are drastically cheaper then perfect larger fish.

Just because a fish doesn't express this trait, doesn't mean it isn't hiding the gene. Traits can go unnoticed for generations and then come out of no where. That's just how genetics work sometime. I feel it would be much to difficult to weed through every fish to get rid off all the ones that potentially may have PLJ, or the genes for PGL. It would also be a very costly cull.

As hobbyists, if we want a perfect fish we gotta pay the money. If not, we take the risk. It's always important to educate yourself on the farms and variants you choose to deal with. Some variants naturally have certain defects (reds are less likely to fully colour up then any other asian arowana, and are often more likely to get PLJ). Fish coming from Pang Long and Xien Leng are generally higher quality then those coming from CV Maju. However CV Maju fish are much cheaper for that reason.

JMorash
 

Cirrus

Arowana blogger
Variables to consider: degree of PLJ, age of fish, strength of other characteristics (colour, body shape, etc.)

All things (aspects of beauty) being equal, better not to have PLJ but...all the other things are rarely equal. :rolleyes:
 

RTG_Gerry

Super Moderator
I wouldn't buy a fish with severe or moderate plj, but like Theo mentions, there are other things about an arowana that might catch my attention that might help me to overlook slight plj.
 

JMorash

Moderator
For a good example of what these two are talking about look at the RTG that arowanaclub.ca forum member Joey has. When I sold him that fish I did so because of the PLJ. At the time the fish was young, I new it was going to be a stunner, but I wasn't sure how the jaw would turn out. As I thought the fish has grown up to be an incredible spoon head RTG, with only a slight PLJ. I'm kicking myself now because the slight PLJ is totally worth it considering how the fish looks otherwise.
 

Cirrus

Arowana blogger
Here is an example of a nice fish that came in last year with, if not PLJ, then thickened lower jaw; I think the other aspects of the fish made up for any loss in points on the "lower jaw score" though ultimately everything is refelcted in the price you pay (or should be).

 
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bcarlos

Member
It would definitely affect me purchasing the fish, but if I owned the fish and it developed PLJ over time, I would take into consideration everything that Theo mentioned above. IMO colour, personality, finnage and body shape are better determinants of a nice aro than slight or moderate PLJ.
 
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