Visiting Atit ....Master Chef Michelin Class!!

An immensely talented ranchu keeper with that cool, confident look and that warm hearted approach in the way he present himself and his fishes. If Atit is a Chef, he will in my honest opinion be Michelin Class...after all how he confidently present his fishes and shared his masterly opinions is a great show of his ranchu knowledge.

 

It was a good hour drive away from the Grand All Thailand Ranchu Competition and we intended just to spend an hour or so, but with this visit which all three of us were totally absorbed and mesmerized by Atit's presentation of his fishes, we ended up spending the whole afternoon.  We only magnaged to rush back to the competition to witness the final placings and the presentation of prizes.

 Atit started by bringing us to see all his fishes which lined up along one side of the house. The first impression is how clean his tubs and how spread out he keep his young fishes...no impression of overstocking and all his young fishes are healthy and full of vigour. Just some past memories flashed back and I remembered the same feeling when I visited Boss Ranchu where all Boss fishes also live in very clean , spacious environment. With much irony Golf mentioned that Attit used to work for Boss Ranchu and I guess the culture of good habits in Ranchu Husbandry rub off from Boss Ranchu to Attit.

 

 

 Out came three stools sitting three basins and soon Atit placed some of his finest breedings for all of us to see and shared his opinion of certain features to look out for in the selection of young ranchus.

 

 It was an usually hot day for the month of  December... by Bangkok standard, and soon Atit brought us tissues to wipe our sweaty face and drinks to quench our thirst.

 

We could have spent the whole day at Atit and enjoy his witty comments and hospitality, but rush we have to  and we happily left with a few bags of young fishes from Attit.

 

Oh yes... as a footnote, in one of the many tubs we saw some very good ranchus and Atit said it belongs to A Chonburi. To me that was an immense and happy surprise  to know that A Chonburi is finally coming back and enjoying ranchu...below is one very good fish groomed by A Chonburi.

 

An Ounce of Preparation is worth a Pound of Cure....

It is good to inculcate good habits and  many a times, good habits are from the good mentoring from our teachers at school or from some other elders at home. For example as I am preparing myself mentally and physically to start breeding again, I will make sure that all my utensils for breeding, my fishes and myself are all ready for the task ahead. As Singapore is in the tropic, I have to wait for the monsoon season to bring in the rain and cooler weather for breeding activities to happen. Meanwhile I start buying my few cans of brine shrimp eggs and if I have some older stocks still in the fridge, I would take it out to test hatching them.

 

Recently I received  a small bag of brine shrimp eggs. The hobbyist who gave it to me was hoping that I can hatch them as he tried without avail. The sad part is this hobbyist friend did not do his pre spawn preparation..he did not experiement to see whether he can hatch this bag of brine shrimp eggs nor did he experiment feeding the eggs to any of his bigger fishes.  So since he already spawned and fries are free swimming and fries need food..in desperation and since he couldn't hatch the eggs,  he fed them to two of his recent spawns...the young spawns all died.

On opening the bag, I smelled very strong bleach and since it is decap eggs, I figure that the eggs were all bubbled in bleach solution and once the outer shell of the egg were burnt off, the eggs were sieved out and dried before being pack for sale. Feeding the eggs without curing the bleach would kill any fries and even older fishes. To counter the bleach problem, I used vinegar and bubbled the eggs in it for 20 minutes to remove the bleach and  followed by washing under tap water. On the bag, instructions did mentioned no hatching required but  I tried hatching the eggs... it will not hatch and I deduced that the bleach solution used to decap the eggs is extremely strong and the eggs are just not hatcheable. Since I did cure the eggs,  I fed them successfully without mishap to some of my fishes.


Sometimes being senior in age and experiences, these are life learning experiences that I share with fellow hobbyists hoping that less will make mistakes that can be avoided and that irregardless of what endeavours we undertake, it is good to have good discipline and always think and plan ahead. Looking forward to breeding season again and it is much ado about planning...


A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door...
Confucius

Everything ends, and Everything matters.....Ron Currie Jnr

 It was a good field trip up north to Bangkok for the mid year All Thailand Ranchu Comp and also some farm visits. The weather was extremely hot hovering around 38C and from the airport, my Thai friend, Golf drove 2 odd hours to visit Prapun and to enjoy his manificient Oyas.

The Thai Comp held under a recent coup threw up many surprises. Last year at the All Thai  annual comp and because of the political climate and fear of unrest, entries were affected(130 bowls), but this mid year comp(supposedly smaller comp vs Annual All Thai)held under a recent coup and martial law surprisingly drew entries of 170 odd bowls...quite a few late entries were shelved because there wasn't any spare bowl left.

 

Just the three Tosai classes yielded 100 odd entries and were mainly dominated by their local breds and three Thai breeders namely Sumo, AorTg and Navamin figured prominently.

This year thus far have been a very busy year for me with breedings and work and with the proliferation of Facebook and Watsapp messaging, I been kept continuously in the ranchu loop. As I hunker down at this mid year break and it is definitely going to be a break.....

The Mechanics of a Good Swim....

It can be obsession and personally to me .... Good Obsession  ... Everything about ranchu is swimming. The value of a ranchu is ultimately valued on how well it swim. I know some might put me on the back burner, thinking my obsession with swimming overwhelm every other beauty/aspect of ranchu...its okay...I feel good having this strong view on swimming and believe that as much as I might be different or whoever else is different, we as fellow hobbyists should give each other space  to learn...to express and to make mistakes...wouldn't you think so too?? Being compliant and never questioning and never pushing the boundary of knowledge will just keep us stagnated and forever bobbling in the middle of the ball park.

So what exactly is swimming and what is a "good swim" when we look at ranchu. If we look back at my earlier blog about riding a bicycle without handle bar.....

it literally express in very simple understandable form how a ranchu without dorsal fin, in its movement is just like a human riding a bicycle without handle bar. To go forth, riding a bicycle without handle bar...the power of control and movement is all shifted to the waist and the legs.

In ranchu swimming, the ranchu is man made without a dorsal fin, the power to swim forward is all thrown towards the back of the ranchu and shifted  through the peduncle into the tail. So how does one view a ranchu swimming as good swim....what is swimming???

In the mid 2000's where there wasn't much guidance from ranchu seniors or Japanese Masters as ranchu was just taking off, we were all blessed with the advent of youtube. Suddenly hobbyists get to see downloaded videos of ranchu swimming. Below is one video of one of my early ranchu and I repeatedly come back and look at it and have shared it many a times with hobbyists on the basic movement of the ranchu tail when it swim...this video is very simplistic because the ranchu swim in a casual leisurely manner and carry its tail with nobility. Please note that this is not a perfectly correct ranchu and might be just borderline comp grade, but it display the swimming that is (imho)deemed ideally basic in good swimming...the swinging widely of the tail in a rhythimic manner and consummating power in the swing of the tail... gracefully and  powerfully.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0di2YoHw8Y

A ranchu that swim well will not use its head to swim...just like a tiring runner crossing the finishing line with both arms fraying...a badly constructed ranchu will repeatedly jerk it's head to generate power just like rappers doing their shoulder lean. A good ranchu swim with its tail and not its head.

Once one understand how to see good swimming, the viewing of ranchu in a bowl takes on new dimension and it will be just a matter of time for that understanding of good swim to generate interest in learning/understanding  the structural anatomy of the ranchu and how it affect the swimming.

 


Addictive Observations:

Thai hobbyists are obsessed with the side view of the ranchu because most Thai players started  off as side view ranchu player..I don't agree though many Thais expressed similar opinion...I think Thai players are obsessed with the side profile of ranchu because they know how important is the "V" angle and the tail setting at 45 degree and how these two attributes are significant in how the ranchu swim.

BossRanchu got an eye for good fishes and he select fishes based on their swimming...don't believe look here .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuff1EfH41g

What is gracefully powerful....look in here.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR29xcXonrI&list=PLbV56820rKtgrGuwCbkvFOosGyVBVh_hT&index=2

Another powerful beauty....look!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1Nib4PxCs

These are some of my spawns for this year...

AC/DC

AC/DC  ....An Australian Band I used to rock to during my younger days and what an appropriate way to remember AC/DC as two nights ago, the air hose to my Black Babies tub was dislodged from the main splitter and I suffered much casualties.

As much as I am careful and do have two AC/DC air pumps to back up my ever steady Hi Blow, but there wasn't  any air outlet from the AC/DC to back up my Black Babies tub. If there is, at least if any power trip or dislodgement of air hose, the AC/DC pump would provide additional 6-8 hours of bubbling. In this case, there was a dislodgement of the air hose; so it is human error and I lost quite a substantial amount of Black Babies. It is good to once in a while  check all air tube connections.

Breeding is time consuming and energy sapping. Just as I thought I can sit back and enjoy this year spawns, mishap happened. Nevertheless I hope I can spawn again as what I have left from the set back is good enough to spur me to breed again.....I wish I  could have save more of the Black Babies... I have to cancel some sales agreement and also cancel some decent culls that I intend to give some new ranchu players.

Oozeki Ranchu Show 2014....

                                           Oya Class

Nisai Class

 

Tosai Class

 

I enjoy this comp as much as I would have enjoy any other ranchu competition. I do see much improvement in the Tosai and Nisai Classes comparing it to last year Oozeki Competition. The atmospehere was great as the weather is cooling and there wasn't much distraction from other social activities which usually coincide and uses the same venue.