These are the final selected fish from the pond spawn. There are a few double tails. Most of the double tails are brown. The other single tails have magnificent colors. Almost all of the colored fish are nacreous lacking guanine. 

Sept 2011 - New fish from Gray, Cincy Ranchu. These are left overs from the past summers Social. Here are some details about the origins of these fish.

From Gary: These BEP fish came from Gerard Siew on this page, he lives in Montreal. The Calico Phoenix came from Washington DC from Russ Taylor. Russ bred the calicoes or got them from me or Jim Fleeker, they were an outcross to a dorsaless fish. He will be excited to see that you are into them, he also has more BEP with different genetics

I have these fish growing in a 125 being fed Hikari purple 3x per day. There is excellent growth of the calicos and decent growth of the BEP. 

Lionchu grow out - 7-25-11

Top view of the lionchu. Some are starting to develop nice wen.



Side view.

Lionchu grow out - 6-25-11

A few of the lionchu. The vidoes are a little funky as I'm playing around with lighting.

Pond fish -Hatch

On Sunday, one week post fertilization, almost all of the embryos have hatched. The fry cling to the sides of the tank and to the spawning mops. I plan to start feeding with newly hathced brine shrimp in a few days.

Pond Fish - Spawning Mop

Spawning mop. These were used for spawning of Spotted Gar in Louisiana. I think that they are pom poms.

I used twine and a rock to anchor the mops. The mops are tied a different depths. The fish spawned like crazy in these mops. The only bad part is I don't know who the parents are. Next spring I will isolate pairs with the same setup.
This is my hatching tank and fry raising tank. The mops are covered with embryos. I started with a low flow but learned that a lot of crud and debris accumulates on the mops and embryos so I turned up the flow and periodically shake out the mop.

Pond Fish

Mass spawning in the pond over the past few days. It has been in the 80s and the pond has probably warmed inducing the spawn. I added spawning mops and collected embryos although I'm not sure who the parents are.

SxK grow out 5/27/11 individual videos

Better quality individual videos of each of the SxKs.

SxK #1


SxK #2


SxK #3


SxK #4


SxK #5


SxK #6


SxK#7


SxK #8


SxK #9

SxK grow out 5/20/11 David's fish

This is David's group, siblings to my SxKs.

SxK grow out 5/20/11

Man these fish are awesome!!! 5/20/11

Lionchu Grow out

Lionchu 5-6-11. A little slow growing but I have been holding back on feeding as they have had some buoyancy issues. These are intended as seeds so I don't mind the slow growth. I really like the colors and head growth that some are starting to get. There are a few with good side view tails and a few that are good lionheads. I plan to take and split this group and select in those two different directions.

Fish room remodel 4/29/11

Three bays complete. The last two bays will have top view troughs for the TVR and raising of fry.



Last bay installed and plumbing completed. I will need to upgrade my pump to something that does about 60 gpm of flow. This will allow me to plumb tanks along the top row as well as the 55 gallon rack on the end. Next up is the remodeling the east wall of the room.

Fish room remodel 4/27/11

Half way through the remodel. All of the 125s are in place. I have moved one four foot rack against the south wall. Lots of rubble!

SxK grow out 4/22/11

SxK 4/22/11.

These fish were just fed bloodworms that have sank to the bottom. In this video I try to capture sand sifting behavior. If you watch close a few of the fish demonstrate this behavior but I caught them after they had eaten a bunch and are in the act of chewing. There are times when all of the fish are intensively sifting. I think that providing a sand substrate is essential for goldfish health. It allows for the sifting behavior which in my opinion keeps stress low. More importantly, the sand acts as ruffage for good digestion.

AGA Goldfish standards

www.americangoldfish.org/Articles/GFSA%20Goldfish%20Standards.pdf

Drilling holes in tanks

All you need to drill holes in tanks: A drill, hole saw, and template. Hole saws can be purchased on ebay for very cheap. You will have to convert to metric to find the right size and wait a few weeks for delivery as they are coming from Asia.


The trick is to go slow and NOT apply too much pressure. Let the drill do the work. This is very important with thin walled tanks as any pressure will crack the glass. I like to add water to the glass as I'm drilling to reduce the temp and wash out the dust.

Fish room remodel 4/18/11

Second set of racks and tanks in place.


Last section is cleaned out and ready for painting. This will complete the first phase of the remodel.


Each 125 is drilled at the bottom of each end of the back wall. One outlet goes to sump ( the closest in this image) and the other goes to drain (the farthest). This allows me to dump the water from the whole tank to the street in a matter of minutes. This comes in very handy when doing water changes or when I need to isolate the tank.


A close-up of the plumbing. The plumbing on the left empties to the drain. The plumbing on the right goes to sump.


This is the image of the sump. 100 gallon rubbermaid. The stand pipe (2" pipe) when pulled dumps water to the street.

Lionchu Growout

Lionchu growout 4/10/11. Fish were placed in a 125 after this was taken.

Fish room remodel

A beautiful site indeed (OK, maybe to a fish geek). 3 - 125's, 2 - 90's and a 75 gallon tank waiting to be drilled and installed.
Rack is set up and decking has been painted. Waiting for tanks to be placed.
With the help of Icthius tanks were placed on the new rack. The tanks are slightly bigger then 6 feet so you have to put the tank on the rack with one of the front legs unattached, slide the tank in, and then attach the remaining front leg once the tanks is in place. There is enough room between legs for the the tank to sit.
Goldfish in their new tanks. Water is flowing and the lights are on.

SxK grow out

April 2011, New additions to the group. 5 fish were added from David's culls.

Fish room remodel

I'm starting a fish room remodel. These are the before images. I'm removing the east wall tanks of the room to put in a Costco racking system, http://goldfishgarage.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-racking.html that will hold 4 - 125 gallon tanks, 2 top view troughs, http://goldfishgarage.blogspot.com/2011/03/second-plywood-tub.html and various other size tanks. It will be a recirculating system with a sump and over flow to street drain. I will have the ability to dump large volumes of water very quickly.
View of the east wall. All tanks and racking will be removed and replaced with metal racking system and larger tanks.
Left of east wall, bank of 30 gallon talls and 125 gallon.
Middle of east wall with goodeid tank.
Right of east wall. Stack of two 90 gallon tanks with cichlids
Tanks have been removed and painting has begun. I had a bucket of paint explode on me as I was shaking hence the paint all over the floor.

Pond Fish

4/3/11, pond fish coming out of hibernation. I have been feeding them very lightly over the past few days.

SxK grow out

SxK grow out 3-20-2011

Lionchu Growout

Lionchu grow out 3-20-2011

SxK with upturned tail

SxK ranchu with upturned tail.

Lionchu Growout

2/28/11


3/7/2011

SVR standards

http://www.rafflesgold.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=231&hl=

Golden Ranchu

This is the first of my ranchu that is changing colors 2/27/11

This is the same ranchu on 3/7/11. Almost all of the melanin pigmentation is gone.

Lionchu

New lionchu fry day 1. They are getting ready for a pp treatment and then into their quarantine tank for a few weeks.

My new "goldfish". This was given to me by my Mother for my 40th bday. It looks great next to the pond.

Tank of misfit goldfish

Many of these guys are "rescues" from the lfs.

Lionchu seeds

Images and video from ranchumaniax

Male 1
Female 1
Male 2
Female 2

I have ordered a group of babies (you tube video) which is a cross from one of the females above and mixed milt from the two males. Cross your fingers.

This is the largest of my ranchu. It has not started to change color.

Image of 98 day fish. The small fish is a birthday present from Ichthius (David L), Thanks!!!

Video of fish at 98 days old. They are ~5+cm.

Sick fish update:

Prior to receiving costia was found during a skin scrape. These fish were treated with PP and costia was not found after treatment.

Approximately 1 week after receiving fish I noticed that a few were laying on the bottom and not eating. Ammonia levels were ~ 25 ppm. One fish was breathing heavily and a red spot appeared on the right side if it's belly. I did an additional PP treatment.

During this whole process I did daily 80% water changes. There were no signs of ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.

An autopsy was done on the dead fish and no costia was found. An unknown very small critter was seen but could not identify.

More fish became sick and showed heavy breathing. I posted videos to GFK and there was much concern that it was costia. I treated with formalin for 24 hours with no change. I then treated with teracycline as there was concern that it was bacterial and still no change. 7 more fish died.

The 5 remaining fish were starting to show signs of sickness so I took them out of the system (below) and placed them in a tank that was supplied with water from a mature system. I isolated this tank from the rest of the system and did daily 90% water changes for 4 weeks.

The fish are still alive and the water has been turned on. The are no longer in quarantine.

I have changed their feed to:

3x/day small amounts of purple hikari

1X/day frozen blood worms

1x/week peas or edamame

1x/week spirulina wafers

Potassium permanganate treatment. Found parasite on the gills of these little guys.