New Rod's Onyx

The prolem with what you just stated is that nearly all onyx percs raised and sold on the US originate from cquest and Bill Addison. Rods parents orignially came from Bill, so did mitch's, and through breeding so did many others. I could say I have "true cquest onyx" fish because I got mine from Mitch and can trace lineage back to cquest. Don't you see, the lineage thing in onyx is moot because they all (nearly) originate from the same place. As far as corals go, I think the lineage thing is BS anyway, so that arguement holds no value in any respect IMO.
 
Talked with a C-quest worker

Go figure.... N E who yes the clown did come with papers. I don't own the clown, but it was signed and dated. The clown turned out a super onyx. Very similar to Rod's Male in a female version... Maybe C-Quest does not do this to the public? The person I know has strong clown fish connections, beyond what most breeders have.

Yes all clowns have the gene. If you look at one onyx to another, they wont all be the same. Water quality and nutrition play a huge role.

I dont see why I have to argue about your ignorance? I'm not even a clown breeder. :lol:
 
The prolem with what you just stated is that nearly all onyx percs raised and sold on the US originate from cquest and Bill Addison. Rods parents orignially came from Bill, so did mitch's, and through breeding so did many others. I could say I have "true cquest onyx" fish because I got mine from Mitch and can trace lineage back to cquest. Don't you see, the lineage thing in onyx is moot because they all (nearly) originate from the same place. As far as corals go, I think the lineage thing is BS anyway, so that arguement holds no value in any respect IMO.

I'm not sure how you can say that they all originate from the same place (Bill Addison's Pair) when I just showed you what was part of a batch of several hundred that had nothing to do with the "Onyx" line of fish and yes... I sold every one of them.
The only difference between those and the "Onyx" line is that the "Onyx" have been inbred longer so as to show a propensity to the melanistic trait in their offspring.
So, maybe you'll see 80% of an "onyx" batch showing melanistic qualities versus say 60% of a run of the mill SI perc spawn.

Also, I'm not so sure water quality has so much to do with the darkening of the fish so much as it impacts mis-barring whether it be desirable (Picasso/Snowflake) or undesirable (half-bars).
 
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If you dig through the archives on RC, you can find so much detail on coining the term Onyx and their chain of custody Bill, to Morgan and Rod, and beyond it is scary.

After a few years of consideration, my take: "Onyx" is like "Wyoming White" a trade name originally put on specifically related fish, but "onyx" has taken on a much wider use in the hobby. Onyx was like Band-Aid, and has become bandaid in general use. I would personally use Onyx to describe the fish from Bill's line, and SI/PNG/onyxlike for others. I don't get bugged by folks calling anything Onyx, but I do ask for lineage when they do :)

Don't expect to solve or conclusively end debate here, just state your point, agree to disagree if necessary, and move along.

fwiw: Not the oldest of the oldies, but a goodie:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=352358&highlight=onyx

fwiw2: One of Rod's oldest posts with onyx:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13599&highlight=onyx
 
Althought they might have all originated or gotten C-Quest bloodline somewhere along the line, each breeder's fish is unique to its own. C-quest are usually super onyx and have slender bodies with more of a pointy head. Rod's have those Stuby bodies and are usually pretty orange. Then ORA's have stuby faces and are pretty yellow, at first

Blues0022, if you think the lineage thing is nothing but shananagins, you are very very mistaken. The fish you got from mitch ( the ones in your avatar i assume) compare nothing to the ones that come directly from C-quest. They are nice fish but lack the onyx that the C-quest have.

WDLV, nice clowns, both the SI percs and the Thielleis
 
"œOnyx" to me has nothing to do with lineage, but more to do with the specific coloration of certain percs. Very debatable, but the general definition I go by is the domination of black in the body in between the 1st/2nd stripes and in between the 2nd/3rd stripes. The front dorsal fin being all black is an added confirmation of "œonyx" designation.

It seems like some tie "œonyx" to lineage (who they got them from), but the "œonyx" collection source or origination is more accurate "“ mainly PNG (SI as well). Just like yellow bellied regal tangs vs. regal tang - the difference is original collection source. Mine were WC from PNG 7 years ago. Doesn't make them any better, but it is a stretch to say most of the "œonyx" out there are from a few folks. The amount of fish being imported through the trade is significant. To be honest, I would have preferred to source them as captive breed due to acclimation and not removing wild reef specimens, but I didn't know a source at the time.
 
It seems like some tie "œonyx" to lineage (who they got them from), but the "œonyx" collection source or origination is more accurate "“ mainly PNG (SI as well). Just like yellow bellied regal tangs vs. regal tang - the difference is original collection source. Mine were WC from PNG 7 years ago. Doesn't make them any better, but it is a stretch to say most of the "œonyx" out there are from a few folks. The amount of fish being imported through the trade is significant. To be honest, I would have preferred to source them as captive breed due to acclimation and not removing wild reef specimens, but I didn't know a source at the time.


I think it ties into lineage because the amount of black that will develop has a lot to do with the genetics of the parents. Since you are rearing your clowns and they are "onyx" its safe to assume they will produce offspring with equivalent amounts of black on their bodies. At least thats how i see it.
 
Agree on the genetics. I was really referring to the comment on the size of the gene pool in the post below.

The onyx population within the hobby is significantly larger than Bill Addison & Cquest's sales and subsequent breeding. A healthy population of WC onyx have been coming in for the last decade. Nothing against their fish - they look great. The general population and genetics is just larger than that.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a big sponsor of captive bred clowns & they've done a great job in that regard.

Why would a "new" Cquest Onyx have to come with papers, and why does it command a price nearly 4 times higher than other breeders? The Onyx line originated with Bill Addison, so any onyx you see out there is very likely (one-way-or-another) linked back to Bill Addison and Cquest.

Papers? for a fish? Really? This isn't AKC, we aren't "showing" our clowns and winning prizes. I think the papers bit is just a gimmick to have the public perceive something of a higher value than what it actually is. So, if Rod, Mitch, Joe, Matt, Doni, etc start giving out papers for their fish they can charge $200 per fish?

BTW, where do you go about this purchase process to get a fish with papers. I want to authenticate this information.
 
Let's get the thread back on track with the original posters fish, if they are from Rod, they have a well documented tie back to the fish originally named "Onyx." That is not in dispute.

Enjoy your fish Rhizo :)
 
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