Disrobing the Tiger - 虎剥げ [tora hage]

Colour is my day-long obsession, my joy and my torment.
~ Claude Monet

In the tropical weather, most of the BBR (Black Baby Ranchu) starts to change colour from 45 days old onwards. One by one, the BBR changes from dark green to dark stripes and pumpkin colour like the patterns of a tiger's stripes and finally to their adult color of red, white or red white. At this stage, the fries are known as 虎禿 or 虎剥げ [tora hage] - "disrobing of the tiger'" was coined to describe this transitional stage.

The Japanese masters believe that colour change is a very important milestone and vulnerable stage of a baby ranchu's life. Very much like the metamorphosis of a caterpiller, it takes a lot of its energy to tranverse this stage as many BBR will see stagnant growth, prone to constipation and gill diseases. Besides extra care on managing water quality, feeding should go slower as fishes generally do not have very good appetite. The black baby stage is also very important to build the foundation of future head growth. It is desirable that the 目先 [me saki] or front cheeks be developed before they change to adult colour.

Picture:
1) 48 day old 虎禿, some already almost orange in colour. This is still not the stable adult colour.

2) BBR showing development of the front cheek.