The freshwater tropical angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare, were originally found in the Amazon region of South America. Pterophyllum is a word that is derived from the Greek word meaning "winged leaf." Scalare is translated as, " like a flight of stairs," or ‘latter" in Latin and is a quality that is reflected in the dorsal fin (1). Angelfish belong to the order or Perciformes and include true angelfish, butterfly fish and freshwater angelfish (3). As you can see in the many pictures that are throughout this paper, angelfish are more disc-like in structure as they are long and splendorous, yet are very narrow. They have two fanned fins on both the top and bottom of their bodies. There are an additional two feelers that lie in front of this bottom fin. Depending on the variety, the tail may differ in shape, yet is always oriented vertically(1). Figure 1 (2)
There are several varieties of angelfish. The varieties include: Silver, Zebra, Black lace, Black, Half Black, Veil tail, Marble, Golden, Gold marble, Pearly Golden, Blushing, Pearl Scale, Blue blushing and koie. The silver variety is the most common coloring of the wild angelfish (1). The silver contains 4 dark vertical bars running along its sides. The first bar runs through the eye, the second is located in front of the top and bottom fin and the third is at the back of these fins and the last will run through the tailfin ...
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