Snowflake Occelaris grading and pricing

Upon delivering my first order of Snowflakes and Premium Snowflakes my LFS pointed out something that should have been obvious to me.  My Snowflakes are really, really nice and have LOTS of white for Snowflakes.  My Premium Snowflakes are barely nicer even though they do meet the standard protocol that Premium means the first two bars are joined on both sides of the fish (with Extreme having all three bars joined on both sides).  The trouble is that my Snowflakes would pass as Premium by many peoples' standards.  The retail price difference in my area is 65-75% more for Premiums, but my Premiums are not 65-75% nicer.  Any suggestions/comments?
 
There are technically only 3 grades I believe.  I clearly have 4 grades...I think.  Haha.
 
Snowflake - three defined bars
Self-Proclaimed "A" Snowflake - three bars, but excessive white coloring
Premium - first two bars connect on both sides
Extreme - all three bars connect on both sides
 
My Snowflake:

 
My self-proclaimed "A" Snowflake:

 
My Premium Snowflake:

 
My Extreme Snowflake:

 
 
Sorry my pics are terrible!  Here is a pic of some in a bag to show you the true coloring of the fish under natural lighting.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Wow! those are awesome.

I would say it all depends on your intended market. If it's local only you will need each grade so all you can do is sort your fish. If you want to ship then you can likely sell more "premiums". Another option might be to trade some of your premiums for another breeders regular snowflakes.

You can decide how you want to sell them.  Do what makes sense for you and your market.
 
That said, you may wish to order some square bottom bags: Gulf Coast Plastics has seam sealed ones that won't suffocate your fish when they do that corner seeking thing.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Thanks everyone!  I will keep my 4 grades then.  Does "A" grade seem a reasonable name for the grade between Snowflake and Premium Snowflake?
 
Kathy, I just picked up a full bag of normal bags...ugh!  I'm just hand delivering right now though, no shipping, so I can place the bags carefully.  I will look into those square bags though, thanks!

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Not change the subject or hijack the thread, but how is it that round bottom bags have not been invented?!?! I work at the LFS and I'm seriously considering marketing this myself and taking the aquarium hobby by storm free samples to you guys as my beta testers.

^  There are round bottomed bags.  They stand up by themselves too.  Of course I can't find a pic for you though. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

D: there goes my ticket to fame in this hobby..

Man, I can't wait till I can justify getting a pair of clowns like those to breed.  I'm still trying to get regular clownfish to spawn and so I can't convince my wife yet that it's a good idea to go throw down a bunch of money for an expensive pair lol.

When I used the bags like you have I just double bagged with the first bag going into the second bag rubber band end first and rotated 90deg. Once you band the second end it mostly makes for a bag with round ends. Then once you use them all up buy square bags.

 
You don't need an expensive pair.  My pair is a normal Occelaris female, and a Snowflake male.  The male is not high grade either.  I bought the fish from a fellow hobbyist shutting down their tank.  They are a really great pair though, the female often lays 800-1000 eggs, and the offspring are quite nice conformationally.
 

 
That's what I do when I ship fish.  Works well! 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

So the big question is this - is every last offspring a "Snowflake" to some degree, or are you getting something like 50% snowflakes of varying grades, and 50% standard ocellaris?

 
The latter is true.  50% Snowflakes (no misbars, no flared gills, no crooked backs), 50% standard Occelaris (of which 50% are misbars, a few flared gills, a handful of crooked backs).

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Some of the experienced breeders at my fish club put tape on the bottom of the bags, taping the corners flat to the sdes or bottom of the bag making a flat bottomed squarish bag.

^  Good idea, I've seen that too, but forgot all about that trick!  Thanks!

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

it won't work unless the seams are sealed.  Those little nerdy corner seekers will wiggle under the flap, and die...
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Some nice looking fish!

My question is whether or not snowflaking is a result of allele expression or selective breeding. It would appear that snowflake clownfish can be attributed to somewhat dominant alleles based on percentages seen, but misbars also seem to be attributed to selective breeding (among other potential causes like water quality).

Your pair consists of a snowflake and a standard occy. The percentages of each form produced indicate that snowflaking is at least somewhat genetic. If this is the case, it could be deduced that a snowflake x snowflake cross would result in all snowflake offspring, of varying grades. Is this the case? I honestly don't know. What I do know is the vast majority of clownfish varieties are purely a result of selective breeding and/or hybridization, and to my knowledge none are proven genetic mutations.

I'm honestly not an expert on amphiprion genetics so if I said anything grossly inaccurate please forgive and correct me lol but I'm relatively confident in

Joe

I'm not 100% certain as i haven't seen in person, but I have heard that Snowflake x Snowflake = 100% Snowflake.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

 
And I've heard exactly the opposite (gives me the impression taht Snowflake is dominant or at least partially dominant, and that 2 doses may be fatal)

Google double dapple dachunds.

I have a question.Will a regular occy from a snowflake produce snowflakes?
 

More than likely it can. If it can I'd expect 25% snowflake offspring from a pairing with a standard occellaris without snowflake genes.

I wonder if anyone can chime in, that has gotten snowflakes from two regular looking occys.One being an offspring of a snowflake