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