Freshwater

Your fish’s body is judged on several different criteria:
To begin with, your entry should have all of its body parts intact.
Your fish should not have any unusual growths, such as humps on the
head (except in the case of some cichlids, where a hump is consider
normal in the males of the species) or large unnatural bends in the back,
which is considered a sign of old age in most aquatic species.
The body of a good-quality show fish is free from deformities and is in
correct proportions for its species.
Color and fins
Chapter 22: Competing in Fish Shows
A fish’s body color is produced by pigmentation and reflected light. In the
wild, fish use these colors for defensive and mating purposes. In competition,
fish must meet the coloration standards expected of an aquarium-bred
species. Especially in show species such as the discus (which is bred artificially
to produce amazing colors like tangerine and numerous cobalt variations),
color can be a major factor in determining points.
Fish have the ability to darken and lighten their colors or even change them
completely, depending on their surroundings and the time of day. Moods
such as fright, stress, and excitement, and other factors, such as illness, can
change a fish’s color quickly. Take all these variables into consideration while
monitoring your candidate’s color. (If your fish glows in the dark, it probably
has sufficient color to sweep any competition.)
The color on your entry should be evenly disbursed, and it should not look
faded or patchy unless typical for the species. The color itself should be
very dense, not superficial, and your fish should not look as if it’s been run
through a chlorine cycle in your washer. The area where two colors meet
should be distinct and well defined, not blurred or run together so that the
fish resembles a tie-dyed shirt.
Recently, a few unscrupulous breeders started using enhancing devices to
increase the coloration of their fish. As far as hobbyists are concerned, this
practice is immoral. The artificial color fades in time and generally doesn’t
look natural at all. An artificially colored fish is similar to a studio’s colorized
version of an old movie. If you saw Humphrey Bogart running around in a
shocking pink hat and purple trousers, you’d know that Casablanca had been
colorized. The same type of color errors show up on your fish and are noticed
immediately by the judges when you use color-intensifying foods (such as
spirulina) or hormones to artificially enhance your fish’s appearance.
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