What makes a black diamond a "low" or "high" quality specimen? In bangkok I usually get the the more expensive "foreigner" price and I want to make sure I'm getting my money's worth. Does anyone have any pictures of tips to steer me in the right direction?
High and low quality black diamonds
- Thread starter cnel124
- Start date
Number of spots size of spots and location of spots I think are pretty much the 3 defining traits from what ive seen where more bigger more symmetrical spots command highest dollar. Can also say color as darkest black and whites spots is desired but that can change some depending on age and tank
In this day and age there are NO "Leos" any more. EVERYTHING is BD. Look at all the hybrids. Apparently we're supposed to believe that people are making mutts from high quality pure bred BDs and typical low grade anything rays. 
Back in the day BD used to mean something (like several rows of spots around the perimeter) but today it simply means Leo.
Pretty sad for the true hobbyist. As many of todays so called BDs would have been laughed about years ago for falling short on almost all "BD" required traits.
Back in the day BD used to mean something (like several rows of spots around the perimeter) but today it simply means Leo.
Pretty sad for the true hobbyist. As many of todays so called BDs would have been laughed about years ago for falling short on almost all "BD" required traits.
I'm not a die hard ray guy but I remember years back the black diamonds were absolutely stunning and went for an easy $3-5k. And today you don't really see those classic Leo looking rays a lot of them have heavy BD traits. I guess it's all par for the course. Over breeding and what have you. 5 years ago cichla azul went for $700+ for a nice size I could barely sell a monster for $100 these days
It's all very annoying. Especially when you spend years looking into and wanting quality BDs as much as i did.Research and snd build a big enough tank, then spend BIG money on quality BD pups who are now entering maturity and breeding. I wonder how cheap i will have to let the pups go for just because the market is flooded with lesser quality BD or even high quality Leos that are being advertised as BD.You have to rely on people knowing their rays and the quality you are offering backed up with information and pics of the parents. I would rather be over run with quality BD pups than let them go for stupid money!
To tell the truth it's very hard to tell when they are pups
A female may look stunning as a pup with big close tight spots but as she grows the spots spread out making the spots look smaller and less of them
Unless the get thousand island lots of small spots then they don't look as nice as adults
A higher grade bd must have all the bd traits belly spotting and light colour eyes along with good disk edge spotting and thousand island
To be honest no one can grade a bd apart from the points I mentioned above it's all down to the buyer as what some people like others hate like eclipse spots
Some bd are even down graded to Leo/bd just because the don't have belly spotting
It's a buyers market now so breeders can't sell a ray at a high price unless it has all the bd traits
As thousand island spotting doesn't normally show until the ray is older it's hard to pick out that trait in pups so you need to see the adults to determine if a pup will get them as a adult
If you like a rays spotting and the price is right buy it if not walk away as another will come up you like at some point
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A female may look stunning as a pup with big close tight spots but as she grows the spots spread out making the spots look smaller and less of them
Unless the get thousand island lots of small spots then they don't look as nice as adults
A higher grade bd must have all the bd traits belly spotting and light colour eyes along with good disk edge spotting and thousand island
To be honest no one can grade a bd apart from the points I mentioned above it's all down to the buyer as what some people like others hate like eclipse spots
Some bd are even down graded to Leo/bd just because the don't have belly spotting
It's a buyers market now so breeders can't sell a ray at a high price unless it has all the bd traits
As thousand island spotting doesn't normally show until the ray is older it's hard to pick out that trait in pups so you need to see the adults to determine if a pup will get them as a adult
If you like a rays spotting and the price is right buy it if not walk away as another will come up you like at some point
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Like your point on the eyes Richard. I had read somewhere about light colour or blue/grey eyes as being one of the determining factors of a true BD along with the belly spotting, thousand island etc. Like you said it is very difficult/impossible to tell when the ray is a pup whether it is going to turn into a true Bd with all the correct markings. I had to trust the guy i purchased mine from as i had no idea and did not know the parentage. I glad i did trust him as the pups quickly showed all the right signs by the time they were around 10 months old from memory.
Not really what they class as p14 and p14 galaxy again you might not see until a later age
Most people don't have the time for p14 to turn black and white as it can take 18 months
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I'm in a little confused on the p14 explanation but that is a good point, however I like the pattern of p14 pups anyways.
