The Singachu is a sideview ranchu breeding project with the aim to create a new strain of Singapore's sideview ranchu from selective breeding of Chinese, Japanese and Thai bloodline strains. Although the current F3 generation of Singachu processes some features we desired, they are still far from being our ideal ranchu. The long term aim of any fish breeding project should be to produce a line of good fish; not just a few good fish. Moreover, the true potential of a bloodline can only be accurately assessed from matured fish. Thus, it will take more time and patience to develop and stabilize a new strain.

Another one of our club level breeding projects is the top view dragon eye butterfly project. Dubbed project "Wootib", we have since produced the F1 from some of our dragon eye butterfly collections. The interest and participation of club members in culling, water change and feeding of the fries enhances team building and provided an opportunity for members to experience the pains of breeding goldfish.

Besides propagating some good lines of crown pearlscales from existing collections, we have also embarked on the challenge of creating a new breed of goldfish - by crossing the Malaysian short tail pearlscales with a stable strain of Chinese dragon eye to create the Dragon Ball Pearlscales! The F2 of this new variety has the adorable features of the Malaysian short tail pearlscales and the beautiful eyes of the dragon eye variety. Future breeding plan is focused on selective breeding to improve the scales, head and the overall roundness of the body. Coincidentally, we also discovered recently that a Malaysia goldfish farmer has produced some very good quality dragon eye pearlscales too.

The advantage to distribute the fries to many keepers within our club means that we can study the development of the fries under varied techniques of grooming. This iterative and feedback approach has enhanced both our grooming techniques as well as selection of potential fish for shows. Moreover, it is also a very enriching experience for members to groom goldfish from very young fries.

	F2 Dragon Ball Pearlscales 2006
F1 Hybrid Pearlscales
F2 hybrid Pearlscales Assorted colours of blue-brown, calico, pure nacerous

Though passion has propelled us through the hard work of serious goldfish breeding, we can never do it in a very large scale. Space, time and cost for goldfish breeding are the main problems for the avid hobbyists, so our breeding projects have to be planned properly. Slowly but progressively, we inch forward as with every iteration year, we refined the process and breeding plan. No doubt that the tedious effort and high cost of breeding goldfish in Singapore make it not commercially viable, no money can buy us the wondrous joy of creating our own bred goldfish and delving deeper into the art of goldfish keeping. We hope that our love for the goldfish hobby will continue to drive us on for years ahead.

To see other articles in our goldfish diary, let's go back to our diary home page.

11 April 2007