Difference between A, AA and AAA Grade discus?

[Schergeil]

Hi guys, I was wondering if someone can briefly tell what or how exactly A, AA and AAA grade discus are distinguishes from one another?

[vss]

are you talking about wild or domestic discus? For wilds, there are such standards, like the wild greens are graded by the number of spots on the body. For domestic discus, I don't think there is widely accepted standard for the grade. Different breeders have different ways to sort their fish, like grade A AA&AAA, or grade A,B and C, or some other ways. In this case you might want to check with the specific breeder/distributor for more details about the grading scheme.

-Xiaofei :)

[Schergeil]

I'm talking about Domestic discus. However most of them consider it to be A, B and C grades, but how do we tell one grade from another ? Any good pointers?

[mmorris]

The best thing to do, when buying fish, is to explain the characteristics you are looking for; i.e. round, red eyes, no beak, etc.

[allan_mark76]

MONEY and lots of it. It's like an exponential increase in cost. Having a grading scale of A, AA and AAA is kinda stupid to me as it's just a money thing for sellers. I prefer A, B, or C. Then again all sellers call their fish A-grade for pricing.

~AKA~

[William Palumbo]

$,$$,$$$,$$$$...Bill

[athy]

well, pricing isn't necessarily a good indicator of the grade the fish is since there are those who will jack up the price for a not so good fish and there are those who are willing to part with good fish for lower than usual pricing.

[Eddie]

Here in Japan they use S or SS to grade quality.

One breeders AAA is anothers A. :)

Eddie

[Jhhnn]

Meh. Sellers and breeders have their own definitions of what terms like AAA actually mean, so they don't mean anything when comparing one guy's stock to another's.

It comes down to knowing what you're looking at, and also down to dealing with an honest seller. If Kenny Cheung, for example, says that a batch of fish are "selected grade", it means they're all really, really nice fish.

Other sellers' claims may be exaggerated or highly promotional...

[DiscusKev]

IMO, what grade scale it is in doesn't matter as every seller differentiate their discus (product?) from their perspective, hence what you see from your eyes as beauty is imo grade A already.

Grade S and SS sounds cool, but I always wonder what the S stands for like in games rating.

Kevin

[MGKelly]

pics PlEASE!

[Eddie]

I see some breeders advertising grade A, which is their normal stock and then call their primo discus AAA. Guess its a pure selling tactic.

Eddie

[phatdave]

Messed up see my next post

[phatdave]

$,$$,$$$,$$$$...Bill


Yep exactly!

[Tito]

SUB jective

[Schergeil]

From what I have noticed, I've seen several grades, and usually the shape, eyes and coloring of the fish counts towards the grade, however kind of not sure. Would love to see pictures differentiating between these grades.

Money is of course one of the biggest factor.. but wouldn't we all want to know what kind of domestic grades do we actually have!

[joanr]

Well how many internet sellers have you seen that advertise their stock at anything below an "A"? Yet looking closely at tank shots you can see the wide spectrum of quality between fish of the same strain, size and shipment. Unless you can hand pick your own, or circle a fish that catches your eye and ask for it if it's available, you have to trust your seller to send you what you specify. Most of the sponsers here will do just that.

[Ibenu]

Would you suppose if someone was to say "A grade" and also have a "B grade" that they may be more reliable?

I have seen a few lists from over seas and am surprised the A grades have very standard names I understand.
While the "B " offers all those silly names:) ie; red jungle, blue eagle and the like..

I like the idea of ABC over A AA and AAA, For no good reason other than its more common sense to me..

[DiscusOnly]

IMHO, the grading only make sense if you put all the discus from the same batch side by side. Once they are separated and you can't compare, one can call an A Grade AA and you wounldn't know the difference.

That being said, top grade discus should have all the basic "good" features.

[boxters]

i disagree that it is a money thing. I have been breeding for many years, and there is a very big difference between a show quality fish and a runt. i wont go into details, but you ask anyone who has show fish versus normal domestics, wether more time and effort needs to be invested in upkeep. Its like a pedigree dog versus non pedigree

[Eddie]

LOL, then you'll be even more confused with Japan's grades, they use S or SS.

[Rod]

My supplier sells mostly A grade discus, but he also has 'normal', 'selected' and 'show quality' grade as well. Mostly the differences i see are in the color and pattern, to a lesser extent size, shape and fins. A show quality is never available in 3" for example, always a very large discus. Same with selected, generally a near adult specimen. Normal grade is generally for the smaller to medium size discus that are not quite there in pattern and/or color. It doesn't mean bad eyes, short gills, egg shaped discus or anything like that. I call these deformed ones 'cull' grade specimens or c grade, and many suppliers i have tried like to add a percentage of these to the order. It's important to find a supplier who has top grade discus, even more important to find one who won't send the c grades out.