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

Anticipation

It feels like just hours until the spawning season begins for me.  The group that I started prepping a little more than a month ago is about to pop!  I've been up at sunrise with my head in the ranchu pond to check for spawning activities.  Boys are chasing!

Update 4-1-15:  Sure enough I woke up this morning to ranchu spawning!  Here are the parents:

Update 4-4-15 11am:  Eggs should hatch sometime later today:

Update 4-5-15  11 am:  Eggs are starting to hatch now.
2 pm update:

Update 4-7 at 8 am:

Update 4-8 at 9pm.  This must be the largest spawn I've ever taken.....

Update 4-21  Just finished culling the whole batch over 3 days.

Update 4-26 Culled thru the whole batch again

Update 5-3 Culled the group again for the 3rd time:

Update 5-12-15 Culled the group for the 4th time:

6-10-15 These are the ones I will grow out for awhile:

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8-1-15: These are some of the best from this spawn:

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8-7-15: Definitely time to call these Tosai, I think:

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8-24-15:

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9-13-15

Many Thanks, Everyone!

I am very appreciative of the enthusiastic hobbyists and breeders that have been inquiring about and purchasing my ranchu.  Thank you!  Besides funding the food, water and electric needs of my ranchu the proceeds from the sales of this spring's ranchu offerings are going towards several upgrades to the ranchu house. 

Three of the large (4.5 gallon) brine shrimp hatching cones will be added to the system this year. I've been using 5 gallon buckets to hatch large volumes of eggs, but the problem is that the bucket is flat-bottomed.  In order to keep the eggs in suspension the airstone must produce a violent amount of air bubbles and I've been getting an orange paste accumulation on the interior of the bucket, airline and airstone.  These are pulverized newly-hatched brineshrimp, pulverized by the extreme air bubbles.  The cone's design allows a small amount of air to keep the eggs in suspension.

Adding several large ponds will be a major focus as well and I'm currently looking at 8x4 and 4x4 sizes for about 6 new ponds this year.