my tvr and blue ranchu 2009

[harzan]

my little ones are now 1-1.5 inches. Tvrs are out of Rain Garden parents and look way better in person. I took many photos, but all look terrible...my camera was just not in the mood I guess.

I uploaded the photos to my album.

[devins23]

Very beautiful ranchus... I love the fact that they look good both as side view and top view. They look bigger than 1.5", how old are they?

Also the blue ranchus are amazing - are they from rain garden also and are they TVRs? Thanks for sharing these.

[small_ranchu]

Nice fish.

For those who cannot view the pic directly here is the link.

http://www.goldfishkeepers.com/forum/album.php?albumid=27

[suphi]

Great! It'll be fun to see what they look like in a month. Keep the pics coming.

[harzan]

I love the blues too...Rain Garden will have many of the blues too as I gave Steve eggs. I bought the TVR parents from Steve at Rain Garden and am happy with the young ones. I took a video. If you want to see it, email me at harris_zane@yahoo.com and I will share it with you.

Blues are from Japan and appear to be longer fish than the ones I see from China on Tommy's site. Some of the blues parents turned black and white. Small ones look good from the side as well and I will take pics side view next time.

Thanks for the replies,

Harris

[Sabine]

They look very good! Are they longfin ranchu like the tsugaru? How old are they?

[bigbettadan]

This is exciting. I wonder too if they were developed from the tsugaru in Japan too........

Dan

[harzan]

I feel really bad, the blue long fins are all females....well only 3 left. I have spawned them to the orange ones and will see what comes out. They are just a couple weeks old. I also did a hand spwn to the blue ranchu ( 1 week old). The photos are the Blue Ranchus and hatched in March, I believe. The bodies are about 1 inch to 1.5 inches.

They appear better than the parents (will take updated photos of them), but I am hesitant to sell them since they are the "Japanese" imports and just in case the next generation is not as good. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Harris

[harzan]

Created a new Album for Ao Ranchu....I got happy with the camera today. I keep them in a dark mossed tub, so the coloration is darker on the adults. Place them in a lighter surroundings and they lighten up.

About half of the adults faded, but none 100% white yet...one started fading over 6 months ago but still has a black lined tail.


I took side views of the youngsters too.

http://www.goldfishkeepers.com/forum/album.php?albumid=36

[Sabine]

Beautiful fish! I like the ones that are just changing colour! Makes all the trouble raising little fish worthwhile, doesn't it?

[harzan]

Hi Sabine,

I love raising them when the small ones make it to an inch. After that I am thinking....Where am I going to grow these out??? And....! what am I going to do with all of these 1 inch fish I do not want/are not saleable and have have place to grow them out.

I am being a lot better at culling early now...continuously. Especially when I see how few fish you and Dan have left after culling a month or 2. Fish grow sooo much better with space. I have about 1/4 of the fish I did before in 3x3 squares and they are growing almost 2x as fast. Steve always mentions this to me, but seeing is really believing.

Thanks for your comments!:exact::exact::exact:

[Sabine]

True. Sometimes, when I do a major culling because the tank looks so full - it looks just as full again after a couple of days. As if the remaining fish catch up and grow explosively as soon as they have more water and food per fish.

[bigbettadan]

Yup, keep the best, cull the rest.........LOL

Dan

[marlin08]

Hi Sabine,

I love raising them when the small ones make it to an inch. After that I am thinking....Where am I going to grow these out??? And....! what am I going to do with all of these 1 inch fish I do not want/are not saleable and have have place to grow them out.

Thanks for your comments!:exact::exact::exact:

Just curious, how long does it generally take them to get to an inch ? (assuming good food and water, of course!)
And then to get to 2"? (By the time they get to 2", how many months have you had to put into them at that point?)

[harzan]

I am finding this really depends on space, and food too.

I do not use live food and have not culled as soon as I could. The ones I have pictured hatched in march if I remember correctly. I have some that are about 2 inches, but some that are not. I think there are others that grow there fish much faster...I am trying to now by culling early and giving more space = better water quality.

You breeders out here are welcome to chime in you know.... :-)

[small_ranchu]

As far as I know, growth is depend on
1. Water quality
2. Food and
3. Genetic.

Feed more, do more water change and your fish will grow in exponential rate. Just choose a good gene one when you buy it, lol.

[mikroll]

hi harris,

beautiful blues. thanks for sharing. I like you fish and their colors too. I too have found that there is great joy in raising the little things from egg and have the same problem with who to cull or not and then what to do with all ones who should go but might be ok as they get older.

Interesting about keeping them in dark containers for darker color.

Michael.

[harzan]

Actually, I am just too lazy to clean and the moss/algae is a natural filter...so I like it!

[harzan]

I posted a few new pics of my blue ranchu to "Blue Ranchu Album" and a newalbum..."TVR 2009" which are my little ones that are now about 3 inches. I bought the parents from Steve at Rain Garden here in Hawaii, but selected shorter ones to fit my personal taste. Steve just posted pics of ones he will have available that are longer...I guess more confirmational to the Ranchu standard.

[harzan]

BTW...to see albums....log on with your name and password (this site - GF Keepers)and click on my avatar/photo of my blue fish and you can see my album(s). YOu can see other member's albums too if they started any...just click on their avatar/pic.

[bigbettadan]

FYI, the standard is not long and skinny, but wide and powerful backs with proper length for good swimming motion. Also there should be not much separation from the belly and the tail shoulders...

Dan

[harzan]

haha....feed um! I actually think the backs on these are very nice and thick which is a fault of some that I see here. My guess is due to the over emphasis on the tail and throughing evrything else out. I am not saying a tail is not important, but personally a thick back and and squared off head are more important traits or shall I say defining points of Ranchu.

This may be why I have too many fish, but I want to make sure I have the squared off heads and thick backs. I do not have the trained eye to find the thick backs in young ones, as I think they keep changing as they grow.

I look at some of the ones Steve just put up on his site and see similarities to the Ranchu off spring (large) photoed in his shots around the farm (group of 4 are his original breeders). I see potential in some of these.

There was another breeder here on the island, known to be one of the best here, and when I asked him why they were so thin he had told me ..."they will fill out with time and food." Same bloodline...a breeder does not believe in feeding more than 1 time a day. Those fish are a lot slimmer, but they did fill out shortly after I brought them home and fed them 3-4 times a day. Reason some do not, they want their fish to live longer. This breeder has Ranchu that are over 5 years old....a couple even 8. I could not believe it....but the breeder thinks it is because of the amount of food.

Food for thought.

[bigbettadan]

I knew what you ment, I was just clarifying for those new to the ranchu world......

Dan

[bigbettadan]

Oh, that food thing is true, heavy feeding and fast growth does shorten life span. Japanese breeders raise their seed ranchu much slower than their show fish. But the genes are there anyway. As Geert Coppens told me recently, it is 70% care vs 30% genetics...

Dan

[bekko]

The funtan will come in time too. I have raised a lot of TVR from this bloodline and have yet to find one who did not have a squared-off head as an oya. Not all of them develop the water buffalo horns though. I know that Harris is not particularly fond of this characteristic, but I like it. I think (but am not positive) that you want early funtan development in tosai if you want water buffalo horns as a oya ...... and vice-versa. But, a TVR without a squared-off head is almost impossible to sell. Some really great deals were passed up in my last batch of listings because the fish were young and did not yet have well-developed funtan.

Geert also says "ranchu is about patience". Those of you who try to pump growth and funtan development you are doing yourself a dis-service. Not only do you shorten the life, you ruin the conformation.

-steve

[bigbettadan]

I agree with you Steve. I like the buffalo horns too. Those lines that have it early but with little overall wen development, like Sugiura stuff that Paul has imported, thats genetic. I have one Itoh/kudo male that had the pronunced funtan early, but none of his sibs. He is the male I plan to use for breeding for this very fact...

Dan

[harzan]

I am not too crazy about the horns when the fish gets big....just too over done.

I have a tendancy to want to rush my fish to 4-5 inches, but have cut back a little.

[bigbettadan]

Not me, I love the "horns"

Dan

[harzan]

Okay, if you are logged on, you can click on the link below. Thanks.

http://goldfishkeepers.com/forum/album.php?u=122

[flaringshutter]

Harzan, are you planning on selling any of your tsugaru or blue ranchu? :) I'd love to have one....

[harzan]

rain garden will have them in a few months or so. if i sell, i will have a larger minimum.

check with steve.