Too Good To Be True ~ 好事多磨

宁為有瑕玉,不為無瑕石。

Better a jade with a flaw then a stone without.

~ Author unknown

As the Ranchus grow bigger, some of their structural flaws manifest. Fishes having desirable traits for breeding are earmarked as breeder fishes while those with show potential will be groomed specially for shows. Besides segregation by show and breeder classes, the sexes are also separated to minimise the chances of premature spawning at such juvenile age.

 

Tosai 2010

Through all these years, I have learned to appreciate how difficult it is to produce a good Ranchu. The work is humongous, but the results are always uncertain and the more I breed Ranchu, the more I am humbled to feel how much I still do not know about this art.

 

My favourite fish with a bent right shoulder.

It will be one of my important breeders for 2011

 

Hopefully, the few promising breeder fishes selected from each spawn would yield better results next year. My main focus of for the next few years will be to achieve consistency both in TVR grooming and breeding techniques.

Stretching The Limits ~ 極限所能

休息是為了走更長的路。
To rest is to prepare for a longer journey ahead.
~ A Chinese saying

My initial plan to push the Dragon Eyes Pearlscale fries to grow faster is hampered by the drastic weather conditions. One moment it was so hot and humid and the next moment torrential rain. In this weather conditions, it would be foolhardy to feed the fries aggressively to hasten their growth rate; one wrong step could potentially wipe out years of hard work. Slow feeding means slow growth, and slow growth means slower culling as their flaws are less obvious to cull.


Rare blue-brown

Though things have slowed down for the pass weeks, I am still kept busy with more frequent water changes to dilute the acid rain. Life  only got a little easier finally after the 4th culling of the Dragon Eyes Pearlscales yesterday. Some day, some where, some things or someone would break if I do not slow down a bit on goldfish breeding. So for the next few months, I hope to channel my focus  on filling the orders for my goldfish artwork. 

Picture
1. Dragon Eyes Pearlscale spawn #4 at 19 days old.

Keep The Best, Forget The Rest ~ 取優捨劣

"在萬中選千，千中選百，百里拔十，方能得出色上好者”~ (拙園老人1904 《蟲魚雅集》)


Sieve out the best thousand from 10 thousands, then select the best hundred from the thousand to get the 10 outstanding specimens out of the hundred.
~ quote from a Chinese book published in 1904.

It was a great relief after culling the largest batch of Dragon Eyes Pearlscales last weekend. The inconsistent supply of daphnia in the rainy season, the cost of feeding such a big batch and the space constraints all signaled the time for urgent culling. Culling was slow and eye-straining, stretching from day time to night time because the fries were still a bit too small to review most of their flaws. Inevitably, I had to keep more fries than I normally do after the first culling.

The focus of Pearlscale breeding this year would be more on fine tuning the features by crossing in the main line of Dragon Eyes Pearlscale to the F2 of the Pompom Dragon Eyes Pearlscale (短尾龍珠球). A rare colouration I  want to breed more this year is the blue-brown (紫蘭花). Having only two precious specimens of seed males, it is paramount to propagate this unique colour before the line is lost.

With 5 big spawns of Pearlsales this year,  so I can afford to be very picky. I am not too worried about the large number of fries now as eventually not many will meet my expectations. Yeah! Keep the best and forget the rest - a slogan I learned from my old friend Ron. I hope one day, he will come back to this hobby again.

Pictures:
1. Short Tail Blue-brown Dragon Eyes Pearlscales (紫蘭花)
2. Day culling
3. Night culling