Monday, February 23, 2015

Winter Water Change

I've been reflecting on exactly how long and difficult the winter hibernation here can be.  The mild winter has been a welcome pace for the ranchu, but there are still several months of cold weather left. It is too much for these ranchu.  I will need to discover the best solution for shortening the length of winter for my ranchu.

This is my most exciting group of breeders for this summer:

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Visit to High Ranchu

Earlier this month I was treated to a visit to High Ranchu in the heart of Washington DC!  Alexander is a passionate & knowledgeable ranchu keeper & breeder.  He lives on the top floor of the tallest building in DC.... very high ranchu indeed! I admire his dedication to the articles he's written for his blog & his commitment to spreading knowledge of ranchu.... very helpful to many in our ranchu community.  I am inspired to create a beautiful pond set-up in my own house very similar to his:



Friday, December 12, 2014

Trying the Azayaka ranchu pellet

I will be trying the Azayaka Ranchu Pellet with my ranchu and I will report on the results.  The bags arrived quickly direct from Japan and were very well packaged with bubble wrap.  I will begin feeding the juvenile formula (blue bag)to some of my cbr & junior tosai straight away.  A lot of my adult ranchu are currently asleep in their winter hibernation, so I will test the balance (green) and color enhancing (purple) when the time is right.  Azayaka is available at my friend Alexander's blog here:http://highranchu.blogspot.com/p/azayaka-ranchu-sinking-pellets-azayaka.html

Update 3-20-15 My initial impression is that the Azayaka is a very high quality food. I will continue to use it this summer.


Sunday, October 19, 2014

Spawn 3 of 2013. Photos from Oct 2014

These ranchu represent the entire group I kept from Spawn #3 of 2013.  I'm documenting the whole group as a way to see how ranchu that are selected as "most perfect in the group" at a young age can evolve over the course of growing into adults.  As these ranchu have now become oya age most exhibit strong swimming motion, superior body & high degree of balance but the problem with this group is unremarkable heads & wen.  This group shows none of the twisted backbone problems that arose in the next spawn, no.4.  2013 spawns #3 & 4 share the father Oishi Red & White and are from separate mothers.  Mother for spawn #3 has superior body, movement & balance with inferior head.  Mother for spawn #4 has superior head but lacks balance.







Thursday, October 16, 2014

Spawn 4 of 2013. Photos from October 2014

These ranchu represent the entire group I kept from Spawn #4 of 2013.  I'm documenting the whole group as a way to see how ranchu that are selected as "most perfect in the group" at a young age can evolve over the course of growing into adults.  As these ranchu have now become oya age many faults have become apparent.  Herein lies the challenge with ranchu: fish that exhibit exceptional qualities may still develop structural issues as time passes.  Although there are some high quality ranchu in this batch I also see many defects in others.  Some of the worst problems are twisted backbones near the tail region.  Sadly the fish with the worst twists also have the best headgrowth, or wen.  There are videos on my Youtube channel of each of these ranchu, designated with the number shown on these photos:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ZyYavO96AUYCwwuCCjZvPLqtqu6hMxb






Tuesday, September 9, 2014

My "Keepers" From Spawn #3, 2014

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Update 10-16-14







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Nov. 8th 2014
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Feb. 23 2015
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Aug, 2015