Contradictions ~ 矛盾

Give the People what they want - and they'll get what they deserve.
~ The Kinks

Lunar New Year decorations in Chinatown

Tomorrow (31st Jan) will be the New Lunar Year of the Horse. Somehow, the festive mood is not felt as much as in previous years. Maybe there were just too many holidays in close proximity as the memories of Christmas and New Year are still very fresh in my mind.

Besides, I am also preoccupied with a big problem this year - how to feed 4 sizable spawns of baby Ranchus over the Lunar New Year holidays, during which, there will be 3 to 4 days without the supply of daphnia. Isn't having bigger TVR spawns what I have always deemed as the biggest hurdle to clear and I finally got it this year? 

Lunar New Year red packet (angpow)
from our lottery outlets
with goldfish designs for
prosperity and luck

Incidentally, this would be one of the most challenging year and a good opportunity to explore and experiment on alternative food sources like pellets or prepared food to supplement daphnia. I have culled the bigger spawns as much as possible to mitigate the limited food supply and control the water quality during the holidays.

No matter what, the Lunar New Year is the most important date in my culture for meeting up relatives, paying respects to the elders and family reunion. Of course, I will behave and spend more time with my family than with my fishes ;-p

May I wish all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Lunar New Year!

Feel Factor ~ 感覺

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
~ Albert Einstein

More than a century of intensive linebreeding and inbreeding by the Japanese breeders have produced the consistent and beautiful Japanese Ranchu of today, but also very delicate fishes that are prone to sickness when conditions are not right for them. Thankfully, the Japanese Ranchu are mostly having problems with gill flukes and gill bacterial, which can usually be treated successfully if diagnosed in the early stages. Problems like head and body ulcer, fungus, argulus, anchor worms are not common for the Japanese Ranchu, unless contaminated by fishes from other sources.

Birds that sing the same kind of song may
not be the same type of birds ;-)

Developing a keen "feel factor" for the fishes is fundamental for a successful hobby, especially so for the Japanese Ranchu which are much more sensitive than most other varieties of goldfish. Fishes can't converse with us directly, so if we have a good "feel" for how the fishes are doing, we could preempt for many unnecessary casualties.

Many people who believe that having profound experiences in keeping the Chinese or Thai Ranchu, then keeping the Japanese Ranchu will be a bliss are in for some nasty surprises. On the contrary, experience in this case may be the biggest hindrance - be prepared to unlearn many things that we learned about keeping other varieties of goldfish. 

The previous big spawn in August did not turn up well and I have culled most and kept less than 10 pieces. This is the time of the year again to breed Ranchu with the cooler ambient and higher temperature swings and I have the opportunity to experiment with more parent combinations. I am glad that the spawns size are getting bigger with better quality eggs for the past 2 years, however, my work load is also growing over the years. Hopefully, I can still juggle work and Ranchu breeding this year. 

How You Wana Play? ~ 你想怎麼玩?

We're all in the same game, just different levels. Dealing with the same hell, just different devils.

- Unknown

A long hiatus from blogging to take care of some very important stuff both at work and at home. Fortunately, things have worked out fine after a few months of hard work. In the course of which, I was compelled to make some time sacrifices from the hobby and that inspired the current post about different perspectives of playing this game. 

Never have I craved for those beautiful and fantastic cars like the Ferrari or the Lamborghini. I mean, I appreciate the beauty and the ingenious engineering of these performance cars. Besides, I can't afford one and I am also a bit of a tacophobia, the fact is, I really am more than happy to own a simple and low maintenance car that I can commute from point A to B. 

In the context of a car, I am a complete newbie and chose not to be bothered with its engineering or inner workings. Though I have never washed my own car, I have never missed any service schedule because I value safety on the road.

Tosai bred this year, one of the
important seed females
for next year

In the context of fish keeping, I am everything a serious hands-on hobbyist, interested to know all about them: how to make them more beautiful, how to groom them for competition and how to breed them well. While people also keep fishes for various reasons, some would go for the Fengshui (geomancy) aspect but even for most who really love them would be happy to settle for some simple setup that they can maintain easily; not many people would like to spare the time and effort to do what I am doing for the hobby. It is just different levels of play based on personal preferences and priorities. 

No matter what level of play, hobbyists should adapt fish keeping to their lifestyles and not to unduly stress the fishes or themselves. After all, a hobby is where one can feel relax and enjoy. Not everyone needs a competition grade goldfish to enjoy the hobby just as not everyone needs a Ferrari. Besides, there are too many traffic lights in Singapore to really appreciate the real power of this beautiful masterpiece... but, I digress ;-) 

It's time to beef up the Ranchus again for the Ranchu breeding season. This would be my 10th consecutive year of breeding the Japanese Ranchu. Though I have still a lot to learn and improve upon, I feel proud that I have persisted and never looked back since. 

For me, it is all out for the things that I want to do.