FBAS Class Letter System Explained
by Paul Barrow

Showing fish under a different federation’s rules, or for the first time can be daunting. Not least of your worries is getting your fish into the right class. Don't worry! no one has ever been missed out because their fish is in the wrong class. The first line of help is the officials running the show, who usually have the club emblem on their shirts. Ask them for help, they will be only too pleased to oblige. Even if you fish is still put into the wrong class it will be picked up at the start of the show when the Senior Judges checks all entries. If the error is not picked up here then it will certainly be noticed during judging. When the Senior, or any other, Judge finds a fish in the wrong class, he immediately gets a steward to put in the correct class and amended both judging sheets. If a fish has to be moved from class 'C' to 'Ca', the judging sheet for class 'C' will have  'moved to class Ca' added in the space for judging, and the class Ca' Judging sheet will say 'moved from class C' in the comments column. Once the class has been judged the judging sheet will be put on public display, so you’ll know where you fish is (and its score).
In theirs wisdom, the FBAS used capital letter instead of numbers for the basic classes. (click here for a full list) Classes run from 'A' to 'Z' missing out 'I', therefore there are 25 basic classes. Class 'A' is for furnished aquaria, class 'Y' is for marine fish and class 'Z' is for plants - don't expect any of these classes at an ordinary open show. The remaining letters stand for a group of fish, usually of a specific type. For instance, ‘B’ is for Barbs (genus Barbus), or should I used to be, now it takes in a short list of related genera. Class ‘C’, on the other hand, includes all of the Characins, while ‘D’ all of the Cichlids. . All classes can be sub-divided using a lower case letter. To explain this, let’s look at class ‘D’ which commonly sub-divided in to its 4 classes. Firstly, ‘Da’ this is for Angelfish (genus pterophyllum); next is ‘Db’ which are the so called Dwarf Cichlids; next comes ‘Dc’ the African, Rift Lake Cichlids, and finally, ‘D’ for any Cichlid not falling into the previous 3 classes. If one of the sub-divided classes, such as ‘Da’, is not included in the schedule, then the Angelfish from that class go into ‘D’. Class letter ‘N’ is for breeding pairs of fish, and ‘X’ is for breeder’s teams (fish bred by the exhibitor). Sub-division in these two classes is more complex as they denote a range of classes allowed to be shown. For instance ‘Nb-m’ stand for breeding pairs of fish from classes ‘B’ to ‘M’ in other words, all tropical egglayers. ‘No-t’ means only tropical livebearers from classes ‘O’ to ‘T’ can be shown. Finally, ‘Nu-w’ takes in all coldwater fish. Class ‘X’ which is for teams of 4 or 6 baby fish has the same sub-divisions – ‘Xb-m’, Xo-t’, & ‘Xu-v’.

Full List of FBAS Classes & Genera