On the road to recovery...Spawn B

2009 Spawn B is now 70-80% recovered from the recent illness. The noticeable physique is the disparity in sizes and some of them the gill plates still look a bit reddish and swollen. I always believe just like in other animals, illness is a battle between the immune system of that animal against whatever illness it is fighting...so the battle is still being fought and I must continously maintain good water parameters to help the soon to be black babies. Feeding as according to the Thai bro must continue during illness as nutrition is important to give the young fishes a fair chance to battle the illness and survive....make sense IMHO and the Thai bro said if any died during the battle..."just throw"....so it makes more sense..."survival of the fittest....nature's most basic law". The weather still very erratic swinging between hot and cold....very tough on the young fishes.

Treating young fries (Spawn C)

I have wasted a few spawns in the past bcos of the spawns succumbing to gill flukes or internal bacteria infection...I still remember my Takeuchi spawn where the black babies were already about 8 weeks old and slowly one by one they died on me...really heartbreaking and I was thinking to myself then....give up ranchu or try and hang in there and try to master treatment....glad I decided to stay learning and here I treat my almost 3 weeks old fries which came down with internal bacteria infection...young fries are very delicate and must have the patience and discipline to see it through. Fries been sick since 21st Feb.....Its just my work schedule where I can't be home during lunch time every day to feed the young fries; so no choice just put as much brine shrimp as what I think the fries will consume during the day till I am back from work. Apparently, when there was a sudden change of weather and the hot afternoon turn into a heavy thunderstorm, the live brine shrimps died or dying and fries eating them are eating contaiminated food and fall sick. Now under treatment of 0.3 to 0.4% salt and acriflavine...feeding must continue during treatment (A Thai bro kindly share this insight.)






Fries as today 25th Feb... now free swimming and on the road to recovery...none died but I culled a few that were damaged like body bent or tail badly damaged due to treatment.

One eye.....

So after recovering from gill fluke, Spawn B went under the microscope(4 weeks old) for one final culling. The fourth week culling is where I separate those I think are ok to keep and groom and the culled....which are given away to friends(who just want some goldfishes to keep). I only give away black babies so must be at least 6 weeks and already weaned from live food to pelleted food...so its extra work, but it is just right not to give away something that the new owner will find it hard to keep alive. I am aghast to see breeder giving away young fries some as young as 2 weeks old.


At 4 weeks I dont flush away any culls as the basic shape and individual characteristic of the fish is beginning to show....just don't have the stomach to do it and I make it a point that by 3 weeks old, those fries that I wanna cull are all culled...so whether the spawn size is a 1000 fries or 700 fries or 200 fries, bcos of space constraint and workload, I will still cull to 100 plus fries by 3 weeks...the different is when it is down to the single hundred, quality will dictate how many of the 100's end up being selected.

Sometimes culling went awry....I missed out culling 2 that only got one eye and I tend to think is bcos of my lost of focus(bad)...so sad as mentioned I don't like throwing away fishes older den 4 weeks. This morning after much hesistation and apology to the 2 young just turned black babies, I flushed them away to their demise. The picture of the 2 one eyed....lets hope I dont make that mistake again. Quality of the bbrs...quite a number are like my "one eyed" and hope to keep them and groom.

2009 Spawn B 3 wks old

This is my spawn B for this year at 3 weeks old...13th Feb. A few days later the whole spawn went down with gill flukes and took me a few days to treat them. Now all recovered and hope to shape them up for some interesting photo shoot.

Spawn A....Stubby Atomic

Haiz Stubby gotta go soon 12 March'09 @12 weeks old....my task is almost done.... now just need to take care of the slightly open gill...wish I can keep to see whether I can lengthen the body...space constraint..haiz haiz





26th Feb 2009

15th Feb 2009

At 7 weeks old

Goodbye my friend
Death is never the end

Memories linger so hard to forget
A scrawny fish I took on a bet
Grooming you was fun
Full of life under the sun

I called you miniskirt
Tail hidden under shirt.
Can't see your tail
but come waggin you never fail
You swim with gutso
Eat to be a fatso

Just one fatal mistake
A simple salt dip
My lost.....my pain
I tried saving you in vain

I am truly sorry
RIP Miniskirt...sob sob sob!!!

This is supposed to be my 2009 Spawn D, but ill discipline and arrogance got in the way...maybe with a full time job watching bloodbath in the stock market kinda exhaust all my energy and drive....lesson learnt...must pace myself.......90 plus percent of the eggs were moldy and I decided to wash this spawn away...this is a big spawn if realised....a few thousand eggs...2---3 thousand eggs. I did one water change half an hour after spawning, but think mb not enough and evening too exhasted after work to do another water change...neither the next morning so mold invasion occured.

I am glad I passed some eggs from spawn D to a buddy of mine to hatch at his home...so spawn at Khatib and hatch at Hill View.....hope he succeed...maybe tomolo I will know....that will be a milestone.

At nine month and I am beginning to like this male more.

At six month and still a bit small for his age IMHO

This is another locally bred fish of the Monden lineage that a kind bro help me sourced. This is a male which started life at three months with very weak tail...we see the developement over the months

At nine month

At six month

Bought 3 Kudous and this is one of them...a female at 3 mth

This is spawn 2009 B...still got about 120 fries after the last cull.

From spawn 2009 A, I am keeping this piece for experiment. It is about 7 weeks old and the body is definitely short...learning whether I can lengthen the body.

At nine month

At six month

This is a local bred and I am very happy to own this male from the Okayama lineage. The breeder is bro Wee Yap and this is how this male. is progressing.

At three months when I first bought him.

At 9 month


At 6 month



At 3 month

At 9 months

At 6 month

Sometime in June/July 2008 a good friend invited me on a pool buy of some Kashino cbrs. This is one of my favourite and post her developement over the months with me.

At 3 months of age

Nogi Spawn January 2008

Some others from same spawn born January 2008