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Goldfish Diary
2003/4
Goldfish Experience - Diary of a Babysitter
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culling - 14 days old
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In this issue, we feature the "parenting" experience
of one of our club members in raising a school of more than 3000
ranchus!
My experience with raising
baby goldfish started without any planning. One morning, I was
suddenly confronted with several thousands of lives at my mercy. A
pair of ranchus which I kept at home had spawned overnight. It was
the most prolific spawn I had ever seen, and the number of eggs
which lined the sides of the tub was DISGUSTING!
Though an avid goldfish hobbyist, I have never entertained any
thought of breeding goldfish as I am by no means qualified. A true
breeder should, strictly speaking, be a master of goldfish genetics
who is able to maintain and improve his goldfish lines over many
generations, and even go on to create new breeds of goldfish.
Without first perfecting the pre-requisite arts of “keeping the
fish alive” and "grooming a goldfish to its full
potential", one cannot claim to be a good goldfish breeder.
OK! I am absolutely not a breeder at this stage, but
at least I can be a babysitter. Why not gain some good experience
from this? Besides, not many people have the chance to own a pair of
very productive ranchus. So I decided to raise these fries, knowing
that it is a lot of hard work. What an understatement! |
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Thanks to a stringent
water management regime, thousands of fries were hatched with very
low mortality rates. Less than 20 developed dropsy and less than 5
were killed through mishandling. Wow! I had more than 3000 healthy,
fast growing fries! In retrospect, that may have been a curse in
disguise. From one 40 gallon tub, I soon expanded to three 40 gallon
tubs and then to a big pond. The fries were eating me broke!
There are 3 factors vital to successful fry raising
– water management, culling and feeding. Fries eat continuously
and cannot be starved. Otherwise, they will become stunted. Water
quality deteriorates rapidly with heavy feeding and space is a
concern with the growing fries. One wrong step, and all the efforts
go to waste and there is no turning back.
I embarked on this difficult journey to raise the
fries, giving them the best conditions in which to grow and and the
best part of my time. Though tedious, the efforts
rewarded me with fries that develop well, and super low mortality
rates. Strict culling was carried out to prevent overcrowding and to
encourage the growth of the best specimens. Halving the population
each time, by the third round of culling, only 300 fries remained.
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7 days |
26 days |
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35 days |
35 days |
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The proud parent
Ranchus |
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39 days old |
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Besides time, dedication and space,
the constant supply of live food required to maintain a large brood
of perpetually ravenous fries ran up a hefty bill! Nevertheless, the
babysitting has been a valuable experience and I am
happy to have identified a number of promising fries with good
developmental potential.
Incidentally, the parent ranchus spawned again
this morning. Unfortunately, I have to say sorry as I have run
out of steam.
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88 days old |
2
month old |
We welcome you to send
your comments to
GreenNgoldSG@yahoo.com
or sign on our
Guest Book.
To see other
articles in our goldfish diary, let's go back to our
diary home page.
11 Sep 03
Updated on 28 Mar 04 |
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121 days old |
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One of the best of
breed - 9 months old |
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