Re: SpeakingOfGenetics

[debrown@kodak.com (doug)]

>From Thomas:

>surely an blue aggie - a nice fish except that bad looking tail.

He's actually quite spectacular! The pictures hardly do him justice. 

>Looks like cut with a scissors. I think of the possibility that this fish had
>an bacterial infection. [snip]

Argh. It wasn't a clean cut then, as you can see in the 3rd photo. I bought it
from a reputable retail/wholesale place that picks out their best fish for the
retail store. I'd be surprised if it was them, but who knows.

>How long do you have it? Did the tail look always that alike?

Yes, it's been that way for the month that I've had him.

>If it's a genetic defect the fry will also have that damaged tail. Just wait
>and see.

One of the females is zealously guarding a little cave she discovered under a
rock. I'm hoping!

>PS: Nice photos !! How did you take them ??

I was going to post this at the web site but since 3 people have asked here
goes. You'll be surprised! Disclaimer: I work for Kodak (obviously) but am a
scientist, not a salesperson. :)

Equipment: Ancient Nikon EM 35mm, 50mm lens, Kodak Royal Gold 400 print film
because that's what was in it and a standard flash. Typical auto flash
settings, f/11, 1/90 sec.

Method: I did nothing special, just found a glare free angle and shot away.
Note that the minimum focal length of this standard lens is about 3 feet, so I
basically took pictures of half of my whole tank, and enlargements were
required! I took the photos Fri. night, Moto Photo developed them Sat.
morning, and did the 3 enlargements (4x6 inch, $1/ea) Sat. afternoon.

Sat. night I scanned them with a Kodak Photo Doc scanner (ok kick me off the
list but this is a great, cheap little Windows 95 scanner with mediocre
software) into Adobe Photoshop at 600 dpi and did minimal brightness and
contrast adjustment with no color or saturation correction. After reducing the
image size the pics were posted on my web site (within 24 hours
after taking them!).

The only things I'd do different are to turn off more of the direct lighting
and put something black behind the tank to reduce glare, and use Royal Gold
ASA 200 film to get the better grain.

p.s. I read Erik's nice tips at The Krib beforehand.

- -Doug
debrown@kodak.com