Different appearance of Leopordi p13

The topic of grading a p14 is very interesting, although it is not official regconised yet, but is a good discussion. may be will be a official standard in future.

Describtion by Andreas is really good and appropriate. I am sure very soon we will have a ray show. then those criteria or standard will be very good reference in for use as judging criteria..... but i am sure no judge will start counting during the show. hehehe....

We have covered the topic about P14, can we do the same for P13? and also other type?

Let do it on P13. I have some of my own opinion as grading, pls see below:

1. Number of spot, Normal Grade = less than 30 spot, Grade A = 30 to 50 spot, Super = 50 spot and above.

2. Spot appearance at side sidc, 1 roll, 2 roll and to the edge

3. Under disc spot.

4. size of spot

5. Shape of spot, Ring, Donut, eclipse type, etc.

We have the few name of different type of appearance on leo,

1. Leo (normal grade)
- have less then 30 spot, no spot at disc side, no spot under disc. ussually small spot.

2. Eclipse
- Have 50 spot and above, have 1 roll spot on the disc side, no spot under disc, donut or ring type of spot, generally bigger spot.

3. Royal Diamond
- have 50 spot and above, have 2 roll spot at disc side, with spot under disc, donut or ring type of spot, bigger spot size than eclipse.

4. Black Diamond
- Have 50 spot and above, minimum 2 roll spot at disc side and spot to the disc edge. present small spot around the larger spot. extremely white spot color and completely black base.

above is only my own opinion.

any inputs? need a objective opinion from experts on Leo.

and need some photo also to illustrate. post your leo photo and tell us what type should be belong to.

Royal Leopard is the name called by Asian people to differentiate the spot quality of the leoporldi, the same like black diamond that are found in Japan. they are somehow different in spot presentation. i was told that Black Diamond and eclipse both are exist in the wild. if you see the price list from Brazil, they group them into eclipse and black diamond too. this probably explain that the special characteristic of different leo exist in nature at certain area.

the same like discus, we have 4 main type established by welknown people such as Brown, Green, Blue, Heckel. From each of this, such as brown, it exist Currepurra, alanquer, Nhamunda.... etc.

So to have a different type/strain of ray is also logical. we have see some leo with very few small spot from wild, also getting eclipse spot type from wild, may be some of this is from a different river system. I was told also there is 2 type of p14 exit in the wild also.

Mike, you are right that is difficult to classify the eclipse leo when they are small, however the breeder should know and the pup still need to be grade. nobody will sell the leo with 50 spot above same price with the leo with only 20-30 spot. some of the spot is not truely showing white spot might dissappear as they grow up. I have got some leo pup that the breeder told me is eclipse, you can see the ring and donut spot type at 12-13cm, and they grow up to have more and more eclipse spot.

If those leo pup from your pup is with underdisc spot, then is possible to be royal leo, else should be grade as eclipse leo or Grade A Leo. the name is not important, may be you can call it grade A and grade B, but obviously the quality is different compare to some few spot leo.

i put below few photo of different type of leo for reference. the first few photo is all the leo i have bought with different price range. and the last photo is the black diamond photo not belongs to me, just use it for reference.

so with such big different in spot and color quality, that's why i think we need a standard grading for all ray.

all is only my opinion, i am not an expert in ray, so may be someone can shade some light here. ;-)