Black Widow Frontosa!
- Thread starter krichardson
- Start date
I am reviving this year old thread. I saw some black widow Front for sale at the Aquatic Experience trade show last week. They look really cool and were sold quickly, but interestingly the abnormal patterns are considered defect and rejected by serious Front keepers.
Has anyone raised them to maturity and notice if the patterns change with age? I’m wondering why they don’t name them white widow as the patterns display more white than black as in normal Front.
I actually like more white in my Front as the black bands in normal Front expand with age, and eventually many old Fronts turn all black, the true black widow. In that respect, juvenile Front are more attractive than old Front as they display wider white bands with touch of blue.
Has anyone raised them to maturity and notice if the patterns change with age? I’m wondering why they don’t name them white widow as the patterns display more white than black as in normal Front.
I actually like more white in my Front as the black bands in normal Front expand with age, and eventually many old Fronts turn all black, the true black widow. In that respect, juvenile Front are more attractive than old Front as they display wider white bands with touch of blue.
Airfish in Germany originally developed and marketed them, with great fanfare I might add, which confused people who associated Airfish with importing quality wild fish-- in fact when Airfish initially sold them it was with a sort of apology to the purists in the hobby. If you followed Airfish over time you could clearly see them gradually line breed them to get the pattern they wanted, which started out as the blotchy looking bars Airfish was so proud of and sold at high prices. Since then others have produced similar fish, either on their own, from ones they bought, etc.
Airfish once had a good reputation but a few years ago I started seeing bad reviews. Meanwhile Airfish started posting names of exporters they felt mishandled their fish, customers they claimed didn't pay, etc. Don't know the story behind the scenes, but it got weird. Few years ago they were reportedly up for sale, don't think they're around anymore.
On a trip to Philadelphia a few years ago I stopped at a big lfs and, what do you know, poor quality frontosa with missing and badly broken up bars for sale as... wait for it... "Burundi frontosa" --as though the "Burundi" label explained the weirdness and made them worth more than regular frontosa. If I'd cared to, I could have bought a few of them, bred them, and easily passed the worst of the resulting fish off as panda or black widow fronts. Like them or not, black widow fronts are basically Burundi with blotchy, broken bars, line bred to a certain look with some clever marketing added.
Airfish once had a good reputation but a few years ago I started seeing bad reviews. Meanwhile Airfish started posting names of exporters they felt mishandled their fish, customers they claimed didn't pay, etc. Don't know the story behind the scenes, but it got weird. Few years ago they were reportedly up for sale, don't think they're around anymore.
On a trip to Philadelphia a few years ago I stopped at a big lfs and, what do you know, poor quality frontosa with missing and badly broken up bars for sale as... wait for it... "Burundi frontosa" --as though the "Burundi" label explained the weirdness and made them worth more than regular frontosa. If I'd cared to, I could have bought a few of them, bred them, and easily passed the worst of the resulting fish off as panda or black widow fronts. Like them or not, black widow fronts are basically Burundi with blotchy, broken bars, line bred to a certain look with some clever marketing added.
Do you remember which shop that was or the part of the city it was in? It is probably closed now but I was just wondering.
Don't remember, I'm not that familiar with the city and it was probably 10-12 years ago.
