CrossRoad

Good Friday weekend was just cruising along fine...my wife and kids were all home and leisurely, I was tending to all my fishes and appreciating the growth rate of Spawn A and B. Had a call(out of the blue) from some friends asking whether they can come vist and that the boss of a fish farm will also like to see the black babies. To cut a long story short, a couple of hours after viewing, I had an offer to buy over the whole spawn...Spawn A. Many things raced through my head....I was standing at a cross road.




I attached 2 conditions to the sales...one is....I keep a few pieces for myself and some close friends. The other is....the spawn be kept together for at least a month so that I can enjoy their growth. It will be interesting to see how Spawn A grow as the conditions in the farm are far more ideal. There is continous dripping of water and there are regular feeding intervals of frozen bloodworm and duckweed. Further, the spawn will be housed in big fibre glass tubs...the abundance of space will definitely help the black babies to grow well.

Video of Spawn A on the day it left my house.

Staying motivated

Running 2 spawns and juggling a full time job can be very taxing. The joy and satisfaction is to see the spawns grow and improve day by day. Spawn B is finally getting the shape that I know is critical in developing into nice ranchu. I kinda feel that as breeder, I am just like the piling company laying the strong foundation that will eventually help the rest of the construction companies build and beautify the building.

Putting shoulders to the wheels...

Ranchu breeding is a family affair. When I have a large spawn or mutiple spawns (like what I did last year), the whole family helped in scooping and transferring fries from one basin to another...water change does help family bonding.

This year and I hope for the next 2 years till my son graduate from Polytechnic, I am very lucky to have him at home helping out during his semester break. The buying of fresh daphnia is done by him first thing in the morning. My spawn A grew rapidly, but my spawn B wasn't that lucky...just when B was about ready for live daphnia, my son went on a school excursion to Malaysia for a week...Spawn B growth was not as dynamic, but now my son is back and every effort is being made to play catch up.

Sample of Spawn A at 31 days old.

Waiting for the final cull...



Close-Up




The Video




Hope to update Spawn B in due time and as a close friend from further North visted over the weekend...Spawn B is definitely better then Spawn A...hope not to disappoint and hope I can raise Spawn B dilligently as this is a full Kageyama spawn.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour....Mary Kay Ash

When we continously live in our little "comfort" zone, when things turn awry...sometimes solving that problem can spin many "merry go rounds". My first batch of fries hatched late February and for almost a week I just couldn't get my brine shrimp eggs to hatch. Forced into a corner by my stubborness, I learnt to decap brine shrimp eggs and feed them to the fries. Decapping brine shimp eggs and feeding them to fries can turn horrendous because the process entail using clorox and vinegar and if the decapped eggs are not washed clean, the whole spawn can be wiped out. Meanwhile, I was still trying ways and means going over what I used to do with my usual method of hatching brine shimp eggs with salt.... same low hatching rates!!

Finally in desperation, I called another hobbyist who happened to buy the same brine shrimp eggs and from this friend, I finally realised my folly. The salt that I been using (since I started breeding) to hatch my brine shrimp eggs used to be supplied by my favourite ranchu shop....the proprietor buy table salt by the bags....and this salt are different from the normal acquarium salt. Since that ranchu shop have stopped ranchu business early last year, I started using acquarium salt to hatch the brine shrimp eggs and thats where my problem lies...Brine shrimp eggs hatches best using just our normal table salt!!


Sample of 2010 Spawn A....(Kageyama X Kashino)
18 Days Old



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The years teach much which the days never knew....Ralph Waldo Emerson

2009 came and gone. I wished I can welcome 2010 with enthusiasm, but it was not to be....Late December and January was busy doing damage control as the stock market dived sharply...some of my clients suffered substantial losses and my income was also hurt. Nevertheless, in time of pain and anxiety, I always look for that "inner peace"... gather my strength and energy and forge forward towards better days.

My ranchu blog was also one of the casualties of my unfortunate missteps...it was not updated for quite a few months...even my Thai friend and some local ranchu friends reminded me to update...my sincere apology and I will try to be current.

The beginning of Year 2009 saw the end of my Sugimoto project. End 2007 Jap imports saw me invested quite a few dollars accumulating some very outstanding Sugimoto Tosai and Nisai. Sad to say, my over enthusiasm in trying to grow my pool of fishes and with my home tubs not ready to accept the sudden surge in quantities, I decided to join some like-minded ranchu khakis to rent some outdoor tubs at Seletar Farmway(end Dec 2007)to house our prized collection. It was fun and great comradeship as we rented quite a few tubs and weekends were spent changing water and enjoying the farm-liked atmosphere. Sadly, it didn't last long...a few months later quite a few of our fishes' tails were cut. Wild animals and birds were rule out as we found a very sharp acrylic instrument in one of our tub which we believed that the intruder who did it was probably surprised by someone coming and left in a haste leaving the instrument behind. A week or so later just as we thought that it will not happen again . some of our tubs were poisoned with bleach and those fishes in there fell very sick. I rushed there when I was told that some tub water were like "coconut milk" white and there and then I packed a dozen pieces home. A few died along the way, but the remainder mostly Sugimoto survived, but it were to be a very slow painful journey of death for all those fishes that I salvaged as one by one they shrunk and died on me. I have highlighted in one of the goldfish forum the tragic event and I also stated that nobody was caught doing the act and I reminded some forummers against wild accusations.

Some of those fishes that died by late 2008

My favourite female...picture taken during one of her many treatments. This female was fostered out to two other experienced hobbyists seeking a cure and when she died, her stomach bloated up badly because of internal organs failure.



A very promising male seed..survived and slowly shrunk and withered away...



A very promising female seed....never really get to enjoy her beauty and splendour...



Coming into 2010 wasn't that exciting because of my work pressure. I tried staying focus and revamped my ranchu set up and mentally prepare to carry on my ranchu journey. I managed my first few spawns of the year and I am excited for the days ahead as my Kashino and Kageyama are coming of age and spawned.

Some of the fishes which were used recently in Spawn 2010

Kashino Female




Kageyama Female


Kageyama Male


I do hope to spawn again within the next fortnight with my other seed fishes and by then my earlier spawn will be in the 4-5 weeks of age. Hope to improve further and hope to garner more hobbyists playing ranchus.

Hope also to continue blogging my ranchu experiences!!