Spawn 4 of 2015

This spawn is the first 'natural' spawn of the year, whereas my earlier spawns have been influenced by placing heaters in the ponds.  3 girls made a boat-load of eggs this morning.  There was a large weather system that passed last night also.  This is an interesting and important spawn. This group is a secondary line of my Oishi crosses, having been produced with a different mother than the primary Oishi crosses.  This line has balanced bodies, powerful movement and they are strong hibernators.  My hope is that keeping this parallel line will give me the best possible situation when outcrosses are needed a few years down the road.

Ranchu House

I'm spending about 5-10 hours a day in the greenhouse currently.

Yellow Eggs

On May 8th I took a spawn from an Oishi Cross female.  On May 9th I took spawns from two Oishi females. So that makes 5 different Oishi cross females combined with 4 powerful Oishi cross males so far this year.  Last year I held off on working with my Oishi crosses to allow the females to become full oya and I think my patience is paying off this season by giving me a strong focus & direction.

This photo is of the eggs from 11 am on May 9th.  Notice the strong yellow color of the eggs.  These eggs have been held by the mother for too long.  Something happened that caused her to not release the eggs awhile ago.  Notice the good separation & dispersion of the eggs.  There is one further stage the eggs could reach if the mother held them even longer: clumping.  Only once in 2012 have I observed clumped eggs and the fertility rate was decent.  So I will let these eggs develop and keep my fingers crossed.

Update: 8-8-15
I was wrong, after having watched this female all year I now have the position that she simply makes yellow eggs.  I came to this conclusion after observing a regular spawning routine that showed yellow eggs every time. Wow, didn't see that one coming.

Second Spawn of 2015

"Spawn #2"consists of eggs from 3 females fertilized by 5 males from the Oishi crosses I made in 2012 & '13.

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Update 8-6-15 Best cbr from this spawn:

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8-24-15

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9-17-15

2 Very Important Boxes

Shipped these out this morning at 4 am on Delta Dash!  Watch out America.... a new dawn for ranchu has begun!

Update 4-26-15  Wow what a horrible experience.  Delta has certainly not earned my repeat business.  The amount of stress caused by this shipment has been enormous.  I had no idea it was possible for so many employees, at so many different stages of the process, to so completely botch their different jobs.  The timeline of missteps and lack of action I encountered with Delta was so perfectly orchestrated that it nearly seemed intentional.

New Bowls

Great find at the Asian Market during yesterday's trip to the Portland airport:

Spawning Behavior