Riddles

A calm sea does not make a skilled sailor.

~ An African proverb

My Top View Ranchu breeding has always been fraught with perils. This year, there are poor fertility problems in most spawns. Besides the usual practice of having more males to breed with a female fish, there should be many more environmental factors that affect fertility. All my breeders are raised in the same environment but why are some breeders just sterile or would always produce infertile eggs? It is very strange as I never have such problems with my Pearlscales.

Maybe the environmental conditions during TVR breeding is not conducive for incubating eggs, maybe I should keep the TVR breeders just like I keep the Pearlscales or maybe TVR is just more regal and difficult to breed. Challenges like these are puzzling but very interesting to overcome. Perhaps, this is what keeps the hobby strong with me for many years - there are always bigger and more difficult riddles along the way to crack.

The Black Baby Ranchus (BBRs) have recovered from sickness. Hopefully, they would stay healthy and become decent fishes. However, I am keeping my fingers crossed due to the persistent problems with fertility and spawn size this year. Whatever the outcome, I enjoy the Ranchu breeding experiences very much. Failures are in fact, very important lessons to fine tune and improved on techniques. Anyway, I have never expected a smooth sailing on goldfish breeding.

Pictures:
1) TVR batch #6 - 23 days old
2) Seed female bred by me in 2008.
3) Seed female bred by my Hong Kong friend in 2008, given to me as part of the seed fish exchange programme. Both fishes are not direct siblings but related in bloodline.