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.

Quality vs Quantity ~ 質量與數量

質量是: 當沒人注視時，你做了什麼 ?
~ 亨利·福特

Quality is what you do when no one is looking.
~ Henry Ford

Finally, I am relieved from some domestic affairs that kept me preoccupied in recent months. For now, I am busy with picking up what I had neglected in my job. Nonetheless, it's great that I have a more carefree time whenever I am with my fishes and not to worry about what matters more than my fishes - my family.

The yield of the Pearlscale spawn this year is much better than last year's and I will soon be segregating them by gender, making breeding plans for the best seed fishes. Comparatively, the big spawn of TVR in August has rather low yield and I have culled away most of them.

I think I have a better feel of selecting seed fishes for the Pearlscale than with the TVR. The correct seed pairing is the way to achieve many good fishes with a relatively small spawn size.

Anyway, there is always something to learn from a good or a bad spawn. Somehow, I came to expect that the good things in life are seldom in great abundance ;-)

Dumb Ways To Die ~ 笨死法

Happiness is nothing more than good health
and a bad memory.

~ Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)

The other day my son shared with me the video of "Dumb Ways To Die" and I had the instant inspiration to write my next blog post. Through the years keeping goldfish, I have collated a list of silly "fatal errors" by hobbyists that caused the lives of their beloved goldfish. Frankly, I was also a proud contributor of some of these "mis-happenings" :-P

~ forgot anti-chlorine

~ forgot air tube

~ forgot power shutdown schedule

~ water overflow overnight

~ pump sucks water dry

~ faulty heater cooked fish

~ capillary action drained out water

~ watching TV while doing 2% salt dip

~ never quarantine

~ mixed new fishes to current collection directly

~ un-sterilized livefeeds

~ expired food

~ overstocking

~ overfeeding

~ netting the fishes after their full meal

~ adding in different medications, hoping one will work

~ adding salt into tank with zeolite filter media

~ overstretched water change schedule

~ overdosed medication

~ overdosed salt

~ never buffer water

~ incompatible tankmates e.g. pleco prefers slime coat to algae

As I drafted this post, someone dear to me also got the inspiration to compile the dumb ways with which I could have died one day:

~ Sleeping 4 to 5 hours per day during spawning season

~ Rushing almost everyday between hobby and job

~ Culling fishes into the wee hours of the night

~ Skipping lunch to check out the fishes at home

~ Water change in the outdoors under direct afternoon sun or thunderstorm

~ Prolong exposure to chemicals doing quarantine

LoL...
can't help it :-P 

I am currently tending to two spawns of Pearlscales since last month and 1 spawn of Ranchu on 9th August, Singapore's National Day.

What's the problem with a dumb but happy life?  ;-)