Thailand Home Visit...Mr Louis Siri Prapakul

It has been a while since I visit Thailand for ranchu farm visits and to procure new fishes. Understandably so as after a recent knee replacement and being "no more young"...the recovery takes longer.

I been following from a distance.... mainly through the internet and especially on Facebook, the  various Thai Ranchu breeders and their fishes. There are so many good Thai passionate breeders and many are actually hobbyist breeders with day job or businesses to run...breeding and promoting ranchu is a hobby.

Recently I was offered a few Japanese imports for my breeding programme. On a hunch, I decided to make a day day trip to pick them up and hopefully have the time and opportunity to visit one or two farms along the way.

As day trip are very much a rush affair,  I only managed to visit Mr Louis Siri Prapakul. Mr Louis is a home breeder/keeper, a self employed  businessman having his own plastic moulding factory and breeding ranchus is his hobby. I have been following the development of his 2013 spawns and I very much like the quality and consistency in the breeding. Mr Louis is a soft spoken, unassuming ranchu keeper with an ever ready smile. Both side of his house were lined with tubs..approximately 20 tubs in all and all filled with beautiful ranchus and some of his this year spawns.


He uses tap water that he age overnite and he does not use any water conditioner. Mr Louis mentioned if he need to have fresh water fast, he will resort to using hypo crystals. Mr Louis asked me whether we use water conditioner in Singapore and I said it is a must as most of us are apartment dwellers and wouldn't have the space nor the right amount of Sunlight to age the tap water.

When  Mr Louis goes about showing his fishes in the basin, he will wash the basin clean with tap water and he will use a newly washed basin for every tub. By doing that, he eliminate the risk of cross contamination. I believe that is a very good discipline to pick up and practice whenever we need to show our fishes.

This is how he cultivate his brine shrimp...using inverted black plastic bottles. Thai fine duckweeds and  Mr Louis packaging some fine Thai duckweeds for me to bring home.

This is his cull pond where he throw all his culls...We have to respect breeders who have that kind hearted tendency to let culls have a chance to live their lives in a safe and  peaceful environment. I know of some great goldfish keepers who refused to breed because he cannot reconcile his conscience with the reality of destroying culls so that the better ones have a better chance of growing.

I am comfortable throwing away fries below three weeks of age, but once they start attaining body shape and the fries start developing character....it is very hard to just throw them away. I have my outlets where I seamlessly slip all these culls and let nature decide how long they live in quiet ponds away from public eyes.

 

 I managed to procure a very good Junior from his 2013 breeding and I am thankful that Mr Louis allow it to leave his hand....