Today decided to take some updated photos and video of my ranchu babies.
Unfortunately, since I was away on holidays for 2 weeks, they were fed very minimally and had no water changes (except a top up) so they did not really get a chance to grow much since the last blog post.
However since being back (it's been 1 week) I have been much more proactive on feeding more blood worms and doing more water changes. I have also culled the last few which were growing to long, which is evidence of the wild carp gene trying to revert itself. Also culled the last few with collapsed bung mouths. They were getting worse and would only continue to get worse as they got bigger. Also they probably wouldn't be able to eat normal size pellets.
I then also separated them again into two batches. One batch of smaller ones are in my larger black tub. This tub originally housed my tvr but those I have since placed into my main pond.
The larger batch are in the same tank but since there are less of them they have more space to move and grow. This way I can really focus on this batch and their water quality won't be compromised as easily.
I prefer the tank as i can easily grow wall algae in which they like to forage and need really, as a supplement to their pellet diet.
The batch below are almost 3 cm long now. They are definitely a lot fatter then before. And can start to see a teeny tiny bit of wen starting to thicken and grow. :)
I must say, I have definitely learnt a lot with this first batch of fry. When I get a chance to raise a new batch of eggs, I will definitely feed a lot more BBS early on and for a bit longer. I'm hoping that the next batch will be this size at around 1-2 months old.
Unfortunately in my main pond, I lost another female fish :(
My black wild colour I called "batman" suffered internal bacterial infection. I have a feeling it was due to having too much sand in my pond as substrate. As since I usually am home to clean and do water change at least once a week it usually isn't a problem. But I think being away for 2 weeks and not having the substrate stirred caused anaerobic bacteria to grow and unfortunately she was the fish to get sick :(
It's unfortunate and I'm a bit sad but this is the learning part of the hobby. Also because antibiotics are strictly regulated here its quite difficult to get certain medicines.
Oh well.. we move on and learn from it. Since then I have removed about a bucket worth of sand. I'll continue to remove more when I can and if needed.
Fingers crossed the rest do not fall ill!
