Many a little makes a mickle ~ 積少成多

子曰:

學者自強不息，

則積少成多。

中道而止，

則前功則棄。

It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop ~ Confucius

Athough the TVR breeding this year falls short of my expectations, I find solace in having my TVR bloodline getting more stable over the years as more fishes in the spawns are converging to the traits I desire. The feeling of accomplishment as I reminisce about those earlier years of trial and error, learning the ropes and building the skills and knowledge step-by-step from basics.

In fact, many  wonderful things in life cannot be achieved in haste: trust, integrity, friendship, love and skills would have to be nurtured and mature through the test of time... I feel more confident now and fantasize about some interesting plans for my TVR in the following years... but before that, I must survive the pile of work from my day job.

Contrast ~ 對比

一個擁有邏輯思考的人與現實世界拼成了很好的對比。

Somebody who thinks logically is a nice contrast to the real world.

~ The Law of Thumb

I closed the chapter for year 2012 TVR breeding last week as it is getting too late in the year to spawn TVR. The tremendous efforts required to groom the BBR would become too much to cope when the workload in my day job ramps up by the middle of the year. Overall, I am glad with the improved consistency in features in the BBR but unfortunately, the overall quality of the fishes still fall short of my expectations. If only I could have a bigger spawn, I think the results will be much better.

For the past 4 months, I strive in vain to get a sizable TVR spawn. In fact, for the years breeding the TVR, this is a problem that keeps haunting me. I have come to accept that the low fertility of the TVR is attributed to genetic dead-end. Even when I had tried to out-cross to another breeder's line and avoid direct inbreeding as much as possible, the average spawn size for TVR is relatively much smaller compared to my Pearlscale. I reckon that in Japan, the bloodlines of TVR are still very closely related amongst different breeders.

2011 breeding - contrasting pair closer to the traits I aim for

In contrast, my Pearlscales are very fertile and never fail to overwhelm me with eggs. Within 3 days of conditioning the Pearlscales indoors for spawning, I have an egg glut!!! Very soon, I have to stop collecting Pearlscale spawns too.

 

Pearlie egg glut - collected on 30 April