Black Diamond Tranformation
- Thread starter AquaScape
- Start date
I posted these pics to show the transformation of this particular ray not to question if the ray is BD or not. But let me clear up the air a bit. This ray was bred by Richard Ross and was sold to me by him, he told me this is a Pure BD ray, both this ray and his brother (which im dying to see pictures of). Now the question is why, would I question his authority? and why would he lie to me? too sell it for more money? NO, I have paid more for hybrids from him then I paid for this ray. His reputation speaks for itself. He is a renown leader in stingray husbandry and If any one knows the true blood lines of rays they breed it would be Richard. He has been keeping and selectively breeding rays for some 20 plus years now. When you have as many rays as him and the amount of years selectively breeding, its not hard to get a bd with these characteristics.
Sorry Jay that was sold before you came to the store. but you did pass on the brother (which I can't wait to see what it has become)
Hi, my name is Kevin and I work with Richard Ross as Head of Operations.
Interesting to see the comments about this ray. Sam, your comment is very true. Any ray imported from the wild is imported as what the fisherman or exporter calls it. This fish was bred from wild black diamond breeding stock. Rays can interbreed in the wild and yes there could be a recessive trait that is showing up. I call this a black diamond pup because it came from my black diamond breeders and had the 3 rows of spotting. Rays are highly polymorphic and the same species can have many variations. Even within what they call Black Diamond there are solid spots, big spots, small spots, broken spots, Island spots, and Eclipse spots.
I recall seeing something here on MFK a while back about some p14 pups, where one of the pups from the litter turned out different from the rest and that it didn't look P14 at all. It was brownish or the pattern was unique. In any case, this could be a similar situation of recessive gene or a polymorphic variation.
T1karmann is also correct that my book doesn't classify black diamonds. And that's because nobody new what a black diamond was back then. It was just called Leopoldi. Black Diamond is only a name created by the trade to classify Leopoldi with certain spotting characteristics and to attach a higher dollar value to it. The Motoro species exists throughout all of South America. Some are worth more then others but bottom line... they are all motoros. So back to black diamond... I often hear the term bd x leo or bdleo. Which is being referred to as a hybrid between Black diamond and Leopoldi. In the end its still Leopoldi so how can it be referred to as a hybrid. BD's from the wild come from unknown parentage. Either of the parents could be a normal Leopoldi variant. Any ray of the leopoldi variant from the wild with "3 rows" of spotting is being exported as Black Diamond. Of course the most sought after ones are from Sao Felix, but who knows which ones anybody has????
I hope this clarifies a few things.
All in all, just enjoy your fish for what it is. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so if you like it, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Here are a few pics of the fish Pedro posted when they were newborn. I thought people here would be interested to see it.
Yes Richard Ross wrote the book, that was a typo on my part. I tried to correct it in my post but it didn't allow me to edit it.
Im still waiting on updated pictures of the brother, but will post them as soon as the customer sends them to me.
