Thailand Farm Visit....Mr Boss Ranchu

The first impression that strike when I met Boss Ranchu is not his fishes, but his personality....a very cheerful, warm family man with an ever ready smile. Even his size is not typical Thai....I think he got some Northern Chinese blood in his ancestry...just a wild guess as I did not get a chance to ask him...he is tall and "big frame" like the Northern Chinese.



Boss Ranchu stay in a huge bungalow very close to where the Crown Prince of Thailand residence is. His home is in a peaceful neighbourhood where security guards mann the main entrance to the estate. On one side of his garden, he built his ranchu farm....neat rows of tubs with proper piping and ventilation. Boss Ranchu is a perfectionist...his set up is well thought out...even his engineered air pump system is an eye opener.

Its a great experience seeing and finally pieceing together why Boss Ranchu fishes have a distinctive look that is "A" typical Boss Ranchu. This guy is so in love with his fishes...so passionate a ranchu keeper that his tub are absolutely clean...he move his fishes to a new tub of fresh, clean water every day....liken to stay in a 5 Star hotel...fishes well fed, water pristine and tub not crowded at all. He shared his feeding technique and as he is a full time family man, ranchu keeping provide a very good outlet for him to use his time looking after his family and play ranchus ...all at home....how marvelous can one's life get!!

Live bloodworms...one big plastic bag full about Sing $3.00





I saw his latest imports of Kawaii, Takao, and Tashiro. The fishes are excellent specimens and I particularly like the Kawaii. Below are some fishes that just came out from quarentine...by now the fishes would, with Boss Ranchu tender loving care blossomed to excellent young Nisai.







Its an eye opener witnessing Boss Ranchu farm....its the ideal and perfect ranchu set up... but sadly not easily replicated in our apartment style ranchu keeping in Singapore...."SPACE". For what I witnessed and experienced visting Boss Ranchu, some private moments at his home and at Hanajima where we were looking at fishes..that moment of hobbyists' excitement and intuitive communication will forever be ingrained in my mind...Boss Ranchu know fishes and talk fishes....love fishes like he love good food and that is contagious!!

“Anywhere is walking distance, if you've got the time.”
Stephen Wright

17 Days Fries

Thailand Farm Visit....Mr Ae Ranchu Star

Last November, I had the golden opportunity of visiting Mr Ae, RanchuStar Farm in Bangkok. Mr Ae or P'AE as he is known to his Thai friends is a humble and unassuming hobbyist with great knowledge in grooming and breeding ranchus.

Mr Ae visited Singapore on two different occasions and I was priviledged to meet him and tap his vast ranchu knowledge...thus there was much excitment and desire to see first hand his farm set up and his fishes.











While I was at Mr Ae's farm, I chanced upon Master Kashino San and he shared a few pointers with me. I also took the opportunity to ask Master Kashino San whether he uses Kageyama in his breedings and he said "yes he does use Master Kageyama bloodline." During Master Yatake San visit to Singapore, Master Yatake mentioned Master Kashino as one of a small handful of top ranchu breeders that he highly respect.



Past few days been staying up late taking care of my young fries and also waking up early to try and spawn another few more spawns. The weather been very ideal....rain in the day and very cooling night and early morning.

Some 12 days old fries....




"Everything negative... pressure, challenges,
is all an opportunity for me to rise"......Kobe Bryant

"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they really are."....Malcom S Forbes

A hobby should be all about fun and enjoyment. I have done my breeding for the year... just as I thought. To me, breeding ranchus is a money losing game. Even before I had my first spawn, I had done my math..."there is no money in ranchu breeding". Passionate hobbyists breed because of that "grey matters" in their brain that urge them, put their energy into overdrive..... drive them mad to tinker again and again just to see whether they can breed better specimens that thrill them no end and yet not satisfied even when they succeed or fail to keep on doing it again and again. Just like Freddie Mercury ....

"If I had to do it again, yes, why not, why not. I'd do it slightly differently."


Serious ranchu breeding is a long journey of self discovery...a journey that seems to have no end in sight. When one improve, there are always so many other attributes that also need improving. Serious ranchu breeding cannot be learned overnight nor can it be shared over a simple cup of drinks by fellow hobbyists. To breed good ranchus entail many disciplines and much preparations and thoughts have to be continously explored, noted and experimented during the course of ranchu husbandry. Unless one breed and get their hands dirtied then can one understand serious ranchu breeding. It is very disturbing to see self appointed "Master" spouting deprecating and sweeping remarks about the quality of our local breeding standard without even spawning a batch of ranchu fries before and not to say whether can recognise fertilized eggs or even recognising whether a picture is a ranchu fry or a butterfly....simply baffling!!

Like one very good student of ranchu and somebody quietly respected in the small ranchu community in Singapre repeatedly remind fellow hobbyist friends on their individual ranchu journey...in his words...

"If you wanna share or teach another fellow hobbyist...make sure what you share or teach is something you have done and understand and not from heresaid and unfounded."


Some new spawns I am having right now....

The Ham Story.....

This is the story of an accomplished chef. He always cut off the end of his ham when he cook. When asked why he cut of the ends, he said it makes the ham taste better. Because he is an accomplished cook, everyone believe him and many also cut the ends off their hams. One day, someone who know nothing about cooking or the accomplishments of the chef, questioned him on this practice. The questioner was not satisfied with the answer and retorted with a "why?". The chef exclaimed that he is an accomplished cook and his culinary prowess always proved he is right. The questioner replied "but it does not make any sense, why would cutting off the end of the ham make it taste better....please explain?

The chef had no answer other than he had always done it this way and he always just taste his ham for proof. The questioner would not relent and formed hypothesis of his own ...... "was it the bone or some other gland that was removed? or maybe it let the juices out..." The questioner reason back and forth looking for a reason the chef would agree to until the chef grew tired and dismissed him. In a moment of reflection, the chef became troubled that he could not answer why the ham was better when he cut off the end.....he is a great chef and had to be right for his own self worth. As the day went on, this began to bother him more and more. He searched his memory to discover how he knew this unarguable fact. He reflected as to where he learned this until finally it dawned upon him that he was taught this by his mother. He called his mother to ask her why the ham tasted better when the end was cut off. To this the mother replied....what are you talking about? I cut the end off the ham because I did not have a pot big enough to cook it in and that was the only way to make it fit(Story was shared by an American hobbyist)


Lotsa time as we play ranchu, we follow what was passed down from friends, from the nets etc etc etc and over times we become creature of our own habits..... we become routine keepers and dare not experiment to improve our skills. Below I share a video of one of my recent spawn where I try to make a 3 pivot tail split into a 4 pivot tail....it is for my learning/sharing experience....enjoy





The reason for using a nail file is....

A fused tail have a thick center bone that fused the left and right lobe of the tail in the center whereby where there used to be a split, the tail is joined. By filing the thick bone in the middle, I am trying to thin it out so that the tip of the tail in the middle will eventually split up. I heard it will fuse back again...hope to see and experience it myself.

“I hear I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand” ...Confucius

It was almost like coming back from Sabbatical leave...my blog has stagnated and some friends were asking why. My last post see me standing at a crossroad and I have travelled quite a bit since then....climbed a few mountains and crawled up a few hills...the views at times can be exhilirating and many a times befittingly sad and agonishing.

2010 Spawn A & B

There wasn't much of Spawn A that I kept. A Tosai picture of a Spawn A specimen...




I did better with Spawn B and this spawn have taught me much on getting the right mix of good seed fishes and I am glad that there are quite a number of spawn B now Nisai age....for my breeding development Spawn B have quite a few samples that hopefully will guide me in learning how to breed good ranchus.



Some other Spawn B that are with hobbyists...




My favourite Spawn B that did very well at last year Comps....




Year 2011 started with 2 spawns and I hope I can spawn again as the weather is raining hard and thus very conducive to have a spawn or two.. A sample of 2011 Spawn B....

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



.

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!!

Mid Autumm Festival Goldfish Competition

SamGoldfish and RafflesGold jointly held a Top View Goldfish Competition to celebrate the Mid Autumm Festival at Dawson Shopping Center.
I was there with 3 fishes as there were only 2 classes of tosai <14 cm and <11 cm. Quite surprisingly the turnout was very encouraging as those who participated in the top view ranchus were mainly small time hobbyists with very little years of experiences like myself.(My 2nd goldfish competition.)


The Grand Champion went to my good friend and goldfish buddy, Nazari. He is an eye opener who have a snack of picking an average fish and groom them to their potential..In the 14cm class, his fishes were placed 1st and 2nd and these fishes were leftovers from imports that many hobbyists have rummaged thr' and thr' before he set his eyes on them. I still remember the Grand Champion of his from the Fish Hub Comp...a Kashino left in a tub to be sold with no buyer till he appeared....great inspiration to the wannabe hobbyists. Another 2 friends, Alan and Jenn(husband and wife) also did very well....fishes bought and groomed from young were also highly placed. All the winners can be seen here....

http://www.geocities.com/GreenNgoldSG/midautumnshow-frame.html


I am happy to see four of my spawns entered this competition by their new owners. Though they did not win any prizes, I am happy that the new owners groomed the fishes to the best of their abilities and made the effort to enter the competition to gain experiences and learn...hopefully improvements and interests can grow even further from this comp experience.

Some pictures of them...

Owner Bro Howard

Owner Bro Andy

Owner Bro Andy

Two of my fishes were placed in the 11 cm Class....



My other fish that went to the comp, but was unplaced.


The judges for the Comp were from The Ozeki Club and they conducted themselves in an impartial manner. I have met for coffee session a couple of times with bro Wee Yap, but on the Comp day after the usual greetings, he excused himself saying politely that he was one of the judges for the Comp. Nevertheless, after the results were announced, many participants including myself, managed to engaged all the judges in discussion about ranchus especially the judges' opinion about their fishes. Hope more opportunities of this nature occur regularly between the Club and the wannabe hobbyists, as healthy discussion foster goodwill and help promote the ranchu hobby.

I also met many other hobbyists and I am glad that some new ranchu hobbyists who have spoken to me through internet goldfish forums and wanted to venture into the ranchu hobby attended the competition. Hope the brooding of new bloods into the ranchu hobby gain momemtum as it is very hard for our lfs to import top view ranchus when buyers/players are few and between. Covenant Goldfish and Dream Koi did not do a single import this year...haiz that is sad for those hoping to ranchu hunt.

Hope to see more activities for goldfish keepers and hope to see more fellow countryman join the goldfish hobby.

Breeding

In breeding of any species of animal or fishes, there are 2 relevant characteristics that serious breeder always have revolving in their head as they plan their breeding. One is to look at the Genotype characterics...genetic makeup of the said species by studying the bloodlines behind it and the other is to look at the Phenotype characteristics that are portrayed physically by studying the species through the breeder's eyes.

In ranchu breeding sad to say there aren't much genetic material to work upon unless one is a student for many years, know where to get the right fishes and have bred consistently.

Given my handicap and limited experiences, I try looking at the phenotype characteristic of my fishes and I am considering pairing these 2 fishes for my upcoming spawn. The male is a pure Kudou while the female is a half kudou.

Kudou Male





1/2 Kudou Female

It's a small world.....

I was a student in America in the late 70's. One summer vacation, I drove to California and stayed with some friends at Huntington Beach. San Diego Zoo, Spruce Goose, Malibu Beach, Disnelyland, Universal Studio, LA Chinatown etc etc were some of the places I visted. One particular place and an incident stayed vividly in my memory even today.




While touring LA Chinese Theatre, I was drawn to an oriental man hawking his wares in a makeshift wooden tray...very similar to those early days Singapore peddlers hawking their wares at the old Bugis Street or even Sungai Road. In the tray were the usual cheap imitation gold chain, fake jade pendants, rings, pens, lighters etc etc. As I approached the street hawker I was shocked to see that he was the guy who used to set up his trade outside my parents' shop which was just walking distance to Sembawang Shipyard. Apparently some American sailor took a liking to him and sponsored him to America. We chatted in our animated Singlish and both felt we are living in a really small world.

About 2 weeks ago I had a vist from my elder bro-in-law. While viewing my ranchus, he kept on saying that he know of a doctor friend who is very good with goldfishes,keep many varities and even concoct his own fish food. He was telling me how dedicated this doctor is to his fishes and out of curiousity, I asked how did he know of this doctor. To cut a long story short...my bro-in-law own a dental lab and did dental cases for this Dr Wee.This is a really small world.

Lately been very busy with work and what not...my fishes took a back seat, but I gotta start planning again as spawning season is just round the corner. I believe I can bring my breeding to another level, but still with very little knowledge and support of some experienced mentor, I am doing things the hard way and many times the wrong way.....it will never be a challenge if one doesn't challenge himself... I took the road...one less traveled by

Spawn C....Up and Away!!!

Spawn G 2009

Kudou M1 July 08 - July 09