Ranchu fry @ 12 weeks

Today coincidentally marks their 3 months of living hahha
I just randomly decided to do an update photo of one of my favorite looking BBR and while I looking through my old photos, it told me today exactly was 3 months of hard work and raising.

I have definitely learnt a lot with this batch of fish. And although not perfect I definitely see a lot of potential. They have somewhat better form then any of their parents.
I eagerly wait to see what colours they will develop. I have 1 definite calico, and a few sakura (calicos lacking black colouring). I had more calicos in the spawn but I had to cull them as they were not healthy or developing very well :(

I have a few with collapsed mouths (bung mouth as I like to call it). But nothing that impedes their ability to eat and live happily in someone's pond :) plus they have other beautiful features like nice curved backs and pretty tails.

Ranchu fry @ 6 weeks

Here's one of my ranchu fry at approx 6 weeks old. I'm not sure the exact age anymore I'd have to check back on the photo date taken.

Anyway, I found I was feeding a bit too heavily on pellets and crushed flakes so I'm easing up on that a bit and relying on the algae and blood worms they enjoy eating :) I think they will yield better and healthier results. 

my ranchu family

Here's a quick video of each of my fish. i dont really have names for them (but my partner gives them names anyway).
Also my dog Jett is a curious little man and enjoys getting his head in the way of my camera.

My female ranchu #1 is the one i have had the longest, bought her from a local pet store about a year ago, at first i thought she was a he, and i'm happy that she has managed to flourish in to quite a chunky nice ranchu. (i started out with a tiny 50Litre tank.. >.<)

The others i got along the way this year, whatever i could find. i just hope to start a line of nice chubby calico ranchus :) thats the aim anyway.

Hope you enjoy :)

RIP fathead :( plus new fry

So a few weeks ago I posted 'sick goldfish'. It was my ranchu called Fathead (not my name) whom seem to had gotten sick after spawning.  I'm still not sure whether it was due to actually releasing or being able to release her eggs, or from eating too many of the eggs the other ranchus dropped.

Anyway so last week my ranchus spawned again, I managed to collect lots of eggs that were attached to the green hair algae growing on the side of the pond.
I don't think there were as many firtilised eggs though because I took out all the other ranchus that I didn't want to spawn and passed them to my dad.

The eggs hatched earlier this week and they have just started free swimming. Such a big difference what a warmer temperature can Do. The first time I had eggs I did not use a heater and took the eggs just about 8 days to hatch. This time they sat in about 22 Degrees and they hatched within 3 days. Of course I could have left the eggs longer but I wasn't intending on trying to raise a big batch this time just due to space and time.

Well same thing happened with Fathead and she bottom sat a day after all the eggs were eaten by all. I didn't feed them that day as I knew they were probably all full of eaten eggs.
I placed her in quarantine and aftrr 24hrs of no food and no improvement
, i tried using a product called Befuran. It's a yellow powder. I was getting quite desperate as her conditioned worsened a lot quicker this time round. Her anus was swollen and red within the day (last time was about a 1.5weeks)and I knew if I didn't try at least something she wouldn't last long.

Well she didn't and she passed away the next morning :( I think her genetics and body make up was probably already not 100% right. She was the only one to get ill. I even have my tvr babies in the same pond and they were fine.
That's the biggest problem with buying local pet store fish. .. you just don't know their history or genetic make up. :(

Anyway I try not to think about it and just focus on making this better for my current fish that I still have.

Ranchu fry update

Ranchu fry @ 4 weeks: http://youtu.be/orvihYTv2to

Tvr video 3.5 months

Tvr BBR - CBR: http://youtu.be/EbtYCSzjC44

Ranchu fry and TVR updates

So it's been a while since my last post. Was actually away last week in Singapore for a wedding. Manage to see lots of goldfish and koi stores there. Was super awesome to see :)
(Will post photos and videos later)

Anyway so while I was away, I had my dad come to my house to feed my goldfish. And my friend (who also happened to be my neighbour when I lived at home haha) to look after my fry. She reluctantly agreed (yay!).

Anyway everything was fine when I got back. Unsurprisingly my pond and tanks were quite low on water - should have reminded my dad what the water height should be at. And he went pretty freely on feeding.. probably a bit too much. But the fish were nice and plump and I did notice growth in both my pond and TVR fish. However! He over fed my betas... and they both have fin rot atm. Grr...

My fry were all healthy and fine :) no deaths and they had grown considerably. They are almost a month old now and I have moved them into a clear glass tank so I can observe them better. I'll be waiting til they get much bigger before choosing the ones I want to keep. Planning to give some to my friend, and my dad.
They have just been weened off BBS and are eating more gel food and some pellets. 

Both the fry and TVR are outgrowing their spaces quickly. Ergh... I still haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. One plan is to build a shelves along the wall and have a few tanks, and have tubs underneath. I'm not sure yet. .. something that definitely needs more planning..

10 days old Fry

This is just a quick post on my first ranchu fry spawn. I'm still not 100% sure who the parent fish are. Lol I think any spawn after this batch I'll definitely control the mating goldfish. For me since it was my first time I just wanted to try and get the highest firtilisation success rate.

Below are a few photos of my set up (yup back in the laundry again haha) and the fry swimming around.

I have started culling the runt fry. Pretty much the ones that haven't grown at all since hatching. Also there were fry that natural died and did not develop their swim bladder properly. Honestly I will be happy with even 10 decent fish. I know most of my ranchus are not even a year old and the ones from the LFS I doubt are much older than that.

Anyway - they are on BBS (baby brine shrimp) and crushed Hikari lion head pellets in between when I'm waiting for the BBS to hatch (yes I know I should be running two hatcheries for the BBR but I'm just lazy :p)

Tvr update photo

Here's a little photo of my little tvr ranchus.  Sometimes it's hard to see any progress when you see your fish everyday. Lol

So I was quite pleasantly surprise to see these fellas growing a bit. The photos are probably a week and a half apart. :)

Goldfish eggs

After 8 days of waiting and waiting, my second batch of eggs that I managed to save from the pond have finally hatched!
It was really interesting to see the development, especially when I had no idea that any would be firtilised at all!!

So what I learnt...

- once you see your goldfish chasing each other, provide some sort of spawning material that you can easily remove when they are done. I made those DIY spawning mops out of wool. Very inexpensive and works but hard to keep clean. Apparently those plastic cheer leader pom poms are a great and better alternative.

- remove eggs when you see them, as goldfish are silly and will eat their own eggs.

- use methylene blue to avoid fungus eggs.

- by about 3rd day should start seeing little dots and line growing inside.

- when they hatch they look like mosquito larvae more than fish :p they will move around a bit but then sink to the bottom

- water change 25% everyday but have to be very careful and gentle.

I will need to start setting up a baby brine shrimp hatchery soon. A lot of work ahead of me for the next month or so...

Photos below:
Showing some fungus eggs that are not firtilised.  Those are from my tank which only has 1 male and 1 female telescope. The male is still very young and small. I was surprised the female has laid eggs twice now!

Little sample of eggs and green hair algae

Little stick fry!

Sick fish :(

So about 2 weeks ago my goldfish all went mental and started spawning with each other. This was a lot earlier than anticipated as we are still in cooler winter season changing into spring. We had a really warm weekend and that set them all off.

One little girl did not cope so well. I found her bottom sitting and quite listless in the morning. The others were still chasing my big white female though.

Apparently with the changing seasons, some fish have weaker immune system. That and eating up eggs or getting egg bound does not help.

I tried a number of things, fasting with sea salt (0.1%) , fasting with Epsom salt - after about 1 week, she still did not eat or poop.
Getting really worried I put her on Prazi and salt in case of fluke and metronidazole anti biotics in case it was internal infection. It has been almost 1 week on the anti biotics and will be getting her second dose of prazi this weekend. She had been bottom sitting so long she started getting sores :(

After the 2nd day on metronidazole,  she started finally swimming around and expelling sand. And a lot of sand it was!! She also started swimming and finally eating. *phew*

I'll be completing a 7 day course of the metro and 3 courses of prazi. I can't wait till she's back to 100% and back in the pond with her friends :)

Beta tank clean out

Last night I had enough looking at my smelley dirty beta tank . I've decided I am giving up trying to grow anything in there except for the floating plants.

My plakat was not looking too good either the past couple of days so I thought fresh water can only do good. My veil tail was fine however. That guy is a tough little fish. When I first bought him he was kept in one of those 100ml USB desktop tanks. Yeh pretty bad but but he still grew reasonably well. He's quite a big beta haha

Anyway hope you like the new set up

Pond clean

Over the weekend I did a big water change and clean in the pond. I don't even remember the last time I did a 100% water change so thought it was about time. Haha

I used the pump and attached it to my garden hose and guided it into the drain. At the same time, I used a bucket to scoop up water to water the garden :)

When the water got to about 50%, I took my goldfish out and placed them in my 4ft tank which has been empty until now.
I realized that my pH increases in my pond too. Not sure if it's dye to the sand or bricks in my pond.
Anyway I slowly acclimatized them before putting them in the tank.

Took the opportunity to take a few photos. It's nice change to see my fish from the side for once. It's also good to check for any health issues etc

I also noticed how much my telescopes have grown :)

Baby TVR update

I'm starting to notice my babies are lightening in colour! I'm so excited to find out what colours they'll be.
They are reaching about 3 months old soon... I think they are a bit small to be honest but I have been cutting back on their feeding due to the water quality issues I was having before :(

Ideally I would like them to be outside with part sun and green water,  but since we are still in winter, temperatures are too cold...
Oh well doing the best I can with the set I have atm.  I have put the 2ft led tank light for them (taken from my shrimp tank)
Will need to get a new light for that tank soon before my plants die lol

Anyway I've increased their food again and just checking water quality everyday or everyday other day.

Leak test and shopping for fish stuff!!

Today I went to buy some fish stuff. I bought foam for my tank that I had posted previously that I had cleaned up. 4ft foam piece was $6.50 from vebas. I also picked up a new sicce air pump. It's reasonably quiet and I chose that brand as its the same as the pump that I'm using in my pond which is completely submersed and quiet.

I also picked up a new sponge filter from Rob ' s aquarium in Malaga.  So far!! It wasn't that great but it had cheap accessories. The sponge filter was only $5 compared to city farmers etc which was around $15.

So the tank is now filled, will leave it for about a week or so to make sure it's all good and strong.  In the mean time I am seeding my sponge filter in my pond so that when I am ready to set up my aquarium it will be cycled :) something I have learned is that cycling your tank or taking seeded filters is very important and will just make your life easier! I for one try not to waste water if I can avoid it. Hence the reason I don't use the python for water changes etc

Planted Shrimp Tank

Here's a short post of my planted red cherry shrimp tank.

It's my first 'planted' tank so honestly it's not the best haha its very low tech, just an LED light and a cheap aquaone HOB filter. The filter has a bit of cut panty hose covered the intake so the baby shrimps don't get sucked up. I also put extra spongey filter media as the stuff it comes with kinda suck.

Anyway shrimp generally like a lower pH,  warmer water temps and still waters. I just feed them whatever I have on hand. Goldfish flakes (cos they're pretty useless for goldfish), algae wafers, tropical flakes and so... anything haha

Hope you enjoy the photos ♡

Water change on fry tank

So this is my current fry grow out set out. It's not ideal but it's the best that I can do given that we're in the middle of winter and I don't have an extra tub for them outside.

I have 13 Tvr fry that were kindly given to me from a family friend to practise and learn from.

It's been a difficult journey. A bit harder than I anticipated really. Made a few careless mistakes (like leaving a tap on while refilling and forgetting about it. I came back to fry gasping for air and a flooded laundry. I lost 4 fry due to rapid temperature change and not dechlorinating enough of the water - because I left the tap on).

Another rookie mistake was over feeding. I was so keen on getting them nice and plump, the water conditions took a hit and they all ended up with really red swollen lips!! Ergh luckily none died but I did treat them with 0.6% salt for 3-4 days. It eventually went away and cleared completely on the 5th day. Lol

I wish I had kept my sponge filtered seeded then I wouldn't have to worry as much on the water. Oh well will definitely remember it for next time. :)

Well I'm sure the fry I have are strong and resilient haha

Anyway I will be keeping track of their growth. I have had them for about a month now. They are around 3 months old.

My tank and set up (yay for extendable taps!) Tank was custom made by vebas more than 4 yrs ago. Still going strong.
Dimensions are 60x60x30cm - goldfish do better with larger surface area as oppose to deeper longer tanks. I use this tank for quarantine too if I ever have sick or new fish.

4ft Tank

A few weeks ago I managed to buy a second hand 4ft tank for $80. It came with black gravel (which I took out as they pose a choking hazard to goldfish and can harbour nasty bacteria and anaerobic gasses if not properly siphoned and stirred), some red glass pebbles (which I may use)' 4ft heto light and an eheim 2215 cannister filter.
The filter unfortunately has a few broken parts which may end up costing too much to replace, so I'm probably going to buy an Aquaclear hang on back (HOB) filter and use an air driven sponge filter too.

last weekend I got a second hand wooden stand (off gumtree as well...Love that site!!) From a couple who bred cichlids. The guy built it himself, along with all his other stands and racks so I knew it'd be strong enough and work.  The stand was $30.

Tonight, I took out the gravel (ergh) and gave it a good wipe down using water and pure bleach solution (I use 1 part bleach to 4 parts water). For the white cloudy stain I usually use vinegar but I didn't have any, all I had was lemons, and I think that did the job.

This weekend will be time to fill and test for leaks and to give it a good final rinse before filling for the fish. :)

My first post!

Hi there and welcome to my blog.

So I have always had pets.. growing up we kept common goldfish, guinea pigs, birds, hermit crabs, and so on...

Now, I have two corgis named Hachi (5yrs old, female red and white) and Jett (3yrs old male, tri-colour).

Recently (about 8 months ago) I started getting back into goldfish. After finding a blogger and youtuber named Jennie from Solidgold. Her beautiful fish and set up really drew me back into the hobby.

The first tank I bought was a 50 litre glass tank and put 3 small ranchus in it. Of course it was wayy too small and under filtered, so on gumtree I went and managed to score a 2x1 metre fiberglass pond. (I will do a separate post on how I cleaned it up).

The rest is history and now I have about 15 goldfish - mainly ranchus which I got from a family friend, a few store bought ones, and 2 telescopes.

I also have a tank of 13 tvr fry which I'm trying to grow out. Hahaha

The hobby has turned into an obsession, I also bought a 4ft tank which I'm going to set up for my store bought ranchus as I think they will look better from the side (SVr).

So I have a lot going on and I look forward to posting in more detail on each.
Hope you enjoy the read! You're welcome to comment, critique or ask questions if you have anyway 😊