Spring is in the air!

Spring is officially here! i know this cause 1) my hayfever is actually slowly killing me and 2) my ranchus have spawned! YAY!

I wasn't actually planning on breeding this year, since i've been so busy. This weekend I'm actually getting married and having the ceremony and reception wedding at home. So its been a hectic few months getting the house and garden neat and tidy for the big day. A week later i'll be in singapore for another wedding lunch banquet (as we have over seas family members), and plan on having a "mini" honeymoon in thailand for a few days.

Luckily i do have someone house sitting and looking after all my pets, so hopefully these fry will be ok :)

I managed to breed my matte white male with a calico female. I'm really hoping for some decent calico fry as it seems to be very difficult to get ANY locally.

(Above: Freshly laid eggs!)

(Above: Day 3/4 - After adding Methylene Blue to treat the unfirtilised fungused eggs. In this photo you can just see the eyes and spine)

I have also sold my large fibreglass pond. It was just taking up too much space and did not look that nice as i didn't make a base or anything for it. So now i have a full rack system with tanks. i haven't decided what i want to do in terms of filtration yet, so they are just running purely on sponge filters. Also i'm still waiting on getting a 6ft tank to house all my fish, rather than separated 3ft tanks. (they came with the rack)

Heres a video of my system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw0epYy9P8o

And here are the parents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I44DCJlXHpY

Since it's been a while since i've posted - here are some extra pics of my fish and tanks! :)

 (Above - new set up)

 (Above : Red & White female, she hasn't dropped eggs yet but i think she's carrying)

 (Above: Cutey pie! Male oranda. In need of a wen trim)

 (Above: Tank is too small for this fella :(   )

 (Above: Calico male , would love to breed from him but he hasn't actually grown much since i got him...)

 (hehehe.. wen trim!)

Video on wen trim:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEa8BdijAQ

My pond filter set up

I changed my pond filter set up so thought I'd take a few photos.
Before I had a big bucket that sat inside the pond that was full of my media.
While it worked perfectly fine it just wasn't very convenient pulling a heavy bucket out every week or two to give the media a rinse.

After a few months of that I found these vertical garden pots that hung perfectly along the side of my pond.
So bought a few pvc pipes to connect it all up and it's what I have been using for the past year. It's much easier to access the media as I don't have to carry anything or turn anything off.

In the photo below I have separated my plant into 2. I love this plant as it is so hardy and grows new leaves quickly. Also has nice white flowers during the summer.

I initially had them in a pot sitting in the pond. But again was very inconvenient having to pull them out everytime to give them a wash through. (I'm a bit weary of anaerobic bacteria growing inside my pond as I have lost a few ranchus due to it)

So instead I purchased another pot and let them sit in some lava rocks. This was water is continuously passing through them rather than sitting stagnant.

This set up will probably change again during the spring and summer seasons. My grand plan at the end of is to have a visually pleasing aquaponic incorporated with my pond. That's the idea anyway.

A lot of it is trial and error. What works and what you find later doesn't work.
That's what's so enjoyable about the hobby I think, that it's continually evolving. :)

CBR update 1

I received these as BBR a couple of months ago. I have them up in a black poly tub and have been feeding them mixture of pellet food, my diy gel food and bloodworms. They are in heated water (we are in winter atm) and with air stones - no filters. I do 100% water change every 3 to 4 days or when the water starts to smell and look really dirty.

I think they are developing ok. There are definitely a few nice keepers. Some are growing too long for my liking.

Here's a video of few of my favourites:
CBR 2015 update 1: https://youtu.be/opMU1UUciKw

Ranchu update 8 months

So here's another update on my young ranchus.
A few days ago I bought a second hand tank off gumtree (basically where ppl sell any thing). It's a nice shallow 90 x 50 x 25 cm tank which is perfect for raising fry. I want to be ready come this spring as I didn't raise any the spring just passed.

So for fun, I set it up with an aquaclear 70 that I had lying around (also secondhand off gumtree that I got for $30 plus it came with a 100 watt eheim heater) and put seeded filter media from my pond outside.

It was a good chance to put them in there so I can finally see them properly from the side. 2 have coloured, 2 are still transitioning and the other is slightly just noticing a tinge of colour on his tail.

The matt ranchu is by far the smallest which I'm not surprised. I did find when they were smaller the calicos/matts were not as strong or healthy looking as the metallics.

They are not perfect but I'm happy with how they are growing (approximately 3-4 inches in total length). Slow and steady. I'm just hoping for healthy happy fish :)

(The calico in the background is a separate fish that I purchased)

New TVR

So about 2 weeks ago I picked up some new tvr from a family friend.
I have put them in the 60 gallon tub for now. I'll be getting some more tmr, which I'm thinking I may need to get another tub or maybe think about selling some of my younger fry soon to make space.

The plan was to keep my normal pet store SVR inside in an aquarium and groom the TVR in the larger pond.
Sigh... it's a bit of a headache trying to look for a rack to place tubs on top of one another

Update : I have also sold my female telescope butterfly. I think some times we get so drawn into the hobby that It can get out of control and overwhelming. Anyway I decided I wanted to step back and concentrate on ranchus for now.
I'm still what I want to do with my oranda which I bought on impulse from a pet store about 1.5-2 months ago. 😧

Ranchu update @ 5.5 months

Here's a quick update on my ranchu babies now at 5.5 months.
I'm glad that I stuck to it and continued to raise them. The uncoloured ones (which I feared were going to stay wild coloured) have finally started to change. This happened when I put one of the largest ones (the uncoloured ones tended to be larger than the others that coloured up quicker) into my main pond. My main also receives a few hours of morning sun and I think this has helped with the colour change.

Ranchu fry 4 months

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!

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 :)