Thailand Farm Visits....Mr Thana and Mr Navamin

It was meant to be a weekend with my kids in Bangkok shopping and eating all the various Thai delicacies, but I managed to set aside a few hours to visit Mr A Navamin at his farm

Along the way I was accorded a surprised visit to Mr Thana who is the Vice President, All Thailand Ranchu Club. Mr Thana keep his fishes in an airy balcony on the 2nd storey of his home. His tubs are all of good sizes and like most Japanese/Thai breeders and keepers...Mr Thana does not use any filteration system. It was just water, fishes and airstones.

One of Mr Thana quality Nisai that he happily displayed in the bowl for us to see the swimming. All his fishes have the healthy and "well-fed" look and the colour are all rich and bright...speak volume of his great grooming skills.

Mr Thana brought out this young Tosai and it is a Thai bred Tosai by a very senior Thai ranchu breeder...somebody not old in age, but deep in ranchu experiences...somebody making a comeback into ranchu breeding...I get a gist of his name and it sounded like Mr Athipkit...good breeder to watch out for...the few pieces in Mr Thana's tub are excellent Thai bred young tosai from this breeder. I can see Mr Thana displaying these ranchus with a deep sense of pride and what a way to promote Thailand locally bred fishes by someone of authority in ranchu. Knowingly, Mr Thana also keep Thai bred fishes from other Thai breeders like Mr Korakit aka Dew of Nice Ranchu Centre.

There was a slight drizzle..nothing worrying, but it was getting late and we finally left for Mr Navamin's farm(not too far away from Mr Thana's home). The setting was just like Mr Ae's farm....tubs, tubs and tubs of ranchus(I visited Mr Ae last year). Though Mr Navamin's farm is smaller, the ever present Thai hospitality is abundant.

I had the priviledge to view all of Mr Navamin's seed fishes and I particularly like one piece which I will love to own...there was this painful look in Mr Navamin's eyes when I showed interest and as a breeder myself..it is understandable. All of his seed fishes display the necessary girth for female waiting to spawn while his males are kept lean and taut. They all display very good tail especially the tail seating which IMHO is very vital in a good spawn. On the right posted are his seed males.

I feel very priviledged to be abled to see a few spawns of Mr Navamin's 2011 breeding. The first impression that hit me was all these Thai duckweeds floating on the surface of the tub and the black babies love it.

I asked Mr Navamin whether he keep all these duckweeds in the tub overnight?....with a puzzled look, Mr Navamin said yes...I do understand as the tub are huge by Singapore standard to keep bbrs....such that in Singapore too much duckweeds in a small tub can be disastrous for young fishes as the duckweeds will compete with the young bbrs for oxygen in the night.

The chance to see somebody else handi-work in breeding quality and good ranchu is a great education in my ranchu journey...I am appreciative of the Thai hospitality especially Mr Oom who fetched me to the farm and translated for me whenever I have queries. Coming back to high rise and high density living in Singapore, I can only marvel at the ranchu opportunities that our Thai bros are experiencing in grooming and breeding good ranchus. Nevertheless I am thankful that in our small little country, we are shielded from many natural disasters. It is sad to learn of the pain and hardship that the recent earthquake and Tsunami caused in Japan and now the worrying flooding in Thailand. Hope Thailand recover from this latest disaster as rapidly as possible. Though it was a short visit, I am appreciative of the opportunity to see and learn ranchus from the Thai bros...many thoughts and ideas came into my mind and I know given my limited ranchu knowledge and experiences...I must try to pick up as much knowledge and know-how when given the chance to do so.


I left Thailand with this remark(humourlessly dancing in my head) which Mr Thana jokingly teased.....

"Singaporeans love to come Thailand to shop at Mabukong Shopping Centre, while Thais love to go Singapore to shop at Mustapha Shopping Centre".