Grade "A" Onyx?

Both of them are picasso, the male is a premium because on both sides the white connect, while the female only one side connects. Very nice fish either way
 
I think the female is too dark to be a picasso. She looks more like Onyx Picasso bred by Proaquatix. The male does look like a picasso clown because he has a lot more orange and his dorsal fin is not as dark as onyx would be.
 
Halo_003 said:
Looks to me like one onyx perc and one onyx picasso.
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Neither are 100% Onyx. Both are Picasso -- one appears to be an Onyx Picasso variant. All Picassos are percula. If ocellaris they are typically called Da Vinci.

ocellaris123 said:
Both of them are picasso, the male is a premium because on both sides the white connect, while the female only one side connects. Very nice fish either way
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Words like "premium" and "superior" subject to opinion. Each breeder rates their fish differently. For example, here's how Sea & Reef categorize their Picassos: "Our Premium Picasso Clownfish has more white markings than our Picasso clownfish and at least two stripes on each side of the fish are joined." And ORA: "Premium Picassos are specimens of superior quality that are hand-selected for their uniqueness. These astounding fish exhibit even greater white coverage than our regular Picassos. Our experienced graders look for premium features such as extra stripes or markings on the face and head that have been recognized as desirable patterns. They always consider the oddness and rarity of the striping, making each fish a unique specimen. Only an extremely small percentage of offspring qualify as ORA Premium Picassos."

The grading system is merely to describe how much white the fish has and if the white areas connect. Grade A Picassos typically have all white areas connecting. Grading in no way implies higher or lower quality. In this case, the female might be Grade B while the male might be Grade A.

president89 said:
I paid $90each. Don't tell my wife.
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1st Rule: You do not talk about Fight Club.
2nd Rule: You do not tell spouses how much you paid for a designer clown.

CoralsAddiction said:
I think the female is too dark to be a picasso. She looks more like Onyx Picasso bred by Proaquatix. The male does look like a picasso clown because he has a lot more orange and his dorsal fin is not as dark as onyx would be.
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+1. To me, the female looks like an Onyx that developed Picasso markings on one side (or an Onyx Picasso that only has Picasso markings on one side).

...

All this aside, I don't personally believe in the grading or ratings hype. Some people want a show dog, others want a family pet. If you're happy with your purchase and are fine with what you paid, then I'm happy for you. I realize that you probably just want to know what you have, but coming up with a clear answer isn't as easy as one would think.

Nice fish! :D
 
I think that OrionN and D-Nak have some of the better looking "pure" Onyx clowns. Out of more than a dozen LFS in SoCal I could not find one that looks like theirs.
 
D-Nak said:
Words like "premium" and "superior" subject to opinion. Each breeder rates their fish differently. For example, here's how Sea & Reef categorize their Picassos: "Our Premium Picasso Clownfish has more white markings than our Picasso clownfish and at least two stripes on each side of the fish are joined." And ORA: "Premium Picassos are specimens of superior quality that are hand-selected for their uniqueness. These astounding fish exhibit even greater white coverage than our regular Picassos. Our experienced graders look for premium features such as extra stripes or markings on the face and head that have been recognized as desirable patterns. They always consider the oddness and rarity of the striping, making each fish a unique specimen. Only an extremely small percentage of offspring qualify as ORA Premium Picassos."

The grading system is merely to describe how much white the fish has and if the white areas connect. Grade A Picassos typically have all white areas connecting. Grading in no way implies higher or lower quality. In this case, the female might be Grade B while the male might be Grade A.
Click to expand...

As you said the grading system is subject to opinion and different breeders have different grading systems. I have seen plenty of ORA premium picassos which imo would barely qualify as being grade B's in alot of peoples opinions. Perhaps a grading standard should be put in place to eliminate the confusion :)

For me the most important qualities when selecting clownfish should be body shape. All too often these designer clown fish are riddled with deformities, but thats a topic for another thread.
 
CoralsAddiction said:
I think the female is too dark to be a picasso. She looks more like Onyx Picasso bred by Proaquatix. The male does look like a picasso clown because he has a lot more orange and his dorsal fin is not as dark as onyx would be.
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darkness doesnt have to do with wether its a picasso or not, i got my picasso when it was mostly orange with some black now after a few months all the black is filling in nicely.


But Yes both are picassos Female is GRADE B because the 3 bars dont connect & small is GRADE A because all 3 bars connect. & then there is "premium" which has better random markings but to me "grades" dont matter as long as the clowns are nice and you have a VERY nice clown pair.
 
Grade "A" Onyx?

ItsTheNano said:
darkness doesnt have to do with wether its a picasso or not,
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It does for onyx clowns and that's the title of the thread.
Edit: I see your point but the black markings on the female are usually the ones associated with onyx clowns. Some onyx clowns develop larger white markings and hence they are called onyx Picassos. If her left side had the same markings as her right side she would be classified as Onyx percula despite her larger white markings on the right side than on traditional Onyx clowns.
 
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CoralsAddiction said:
It does for onyx clowns and that's the title of the thread.
Edit: I see your point but the black markings on the female are usually the ones associated with onyx clowns. Some onyx clowns develop larger white markings and hence they are called onyx Picassos. If her left side had the same markings as her right side she would be classified as Onyx percula despite her larger white markings on the right side than on traditional Onyx clowns.
Click to expand...

I thought "onyx" were almost all black except the face & the fins. All true perculas have black in them other just have more than regulars. Ive even heard of super black perculas very similar to onyx but not onyx since onyx came from rods onyx lineage. But yes his looks like both a picasso from one side & an onyx from the other lol ekther way like stated before fish are nice
 
ItsTheNano said:
I thought "onyx" were almost all black except the face & the fins. All true perculas have black in them other just have more than regulars. Ive even heard of super black perculas very similar to onyx but not onyx since onyx came from rods onyx lineage. But yes his looks like both a picasso from one side & an onyx from the other lol ekther way like stated before fish are nice
Click to expand...

Onyx Percula is a term coined by Bill Addison of C-Quest as he is the originator of the Onyx variant. Rod's Onyx clowns (the ones I have) are from the C-Quest Onyx lineage. FWIW, I received official word from Rod's clown wrangler that they are no longer breeding clowns.
 
Both Picasso, Picassos without Onyx genes can get a lot of black. Look at Doni's OG breeder pair, the female was a Picasso, black body, not an Onyx Picasso.
 
To me the only way you can grade an onyx clown is wether it's got perfect bars of if it's a mis-bar...

All the other grading is completely subjective, especially considering you just attempting to grade the different variants of a mis-bar in the first place.
 
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