My helper takes a week leave to attend a business in his village. I am all alone to take care of all these goldfish. Yes, it will be a tiring week for me. Yet, I am very excited to have this occasion once in a while.

This morning, as usual, I woke up at 05.00. I took a time to read the Scripture accompanied by a cup of hot Milo (half dose to reduce my sugar consumption, of course). Then I did my routine exercises to prevent muscle injury when working on the ponds, especially when I must do the works alone. At 06.00 I went to my ponds which is just 5 minutes walking from my house.

The first thing I did was to check which goldfish was laying eggs. The one mating this morning was the Cow Ranchu. This was before the schedule. I was expecting her to lay eggs tomorrow. Since the eggs came out prematurely, there was only few of them. I think I know my mistake. The fish is a productive one. Feeding her solely with wheatgerm pellets is enough to keep her productive. Yet, yesterday I gave them frozen bloodworm and live daphnia. That was an unnecessary move for a productive fish. Those diets might be responsible to induce the breeding before its time. Anyway, I collected the eggs and determined to feed pellets only for now.

Next, I did the water change for all tubs without filtration. I siphoned some of them and change the water up to 90%. I did total water change for the rest and scrub them clean. I usually leave the latter to my helper. But today I did it myself. I did it cautiously to avoid back pain.

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The tubs in the top shelf (from the right) contain the cross between telescope butterfly and celestial, daphnia culture, newly hatched brown oranda, and a weeks old blue ranchu. The bottom shelf contains the cross between tricolor oranda and purple ranchu (the first from the right). The three other tubs are daphnia culture.

Three of these tubs are the home for the topview ranchu, blue and purple ranchu, and the cross between tricolor oranda and purple ranchu that have come of age. Others are daphnia culture. I water change all of the tubs except the daphnia culture.

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These nine tubs are the home of young blue oranda, blue pompom, young topview ranchu, and newly hatced cow ranchu (occupying 5 tubs of its own). Yes, I am concentrating on the cow ranchu at this time. All the tubs on the top shelf need water change, and all on the bottom need to be scrubbed.

I guess the hardest part was to scrub a big fiber tub 1.5 meter x 1.5 meter. I keep four large topview ranchu there and do a total water change every four days.

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It is noticeable that I did not scrub them hard enough. I did not have enough energy to scrub it super clean. My helper usually did a better job. Well, he is a lot younger than me. Pardon my age.

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While I scrub the tub, I put the fishes temporarily on these small containers.

Since today is Sunday, it is time to change the water of a special pond:

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This 1 meter x 60 centimeter pond was meant as a filtration area. But I changed the function into a deep pond without any filtration. Somehow, the fishes I kept there can grow fast. The ranchu in the blue container is the resident, accompanied by her small friend. This ranchu is in the middle of a Keeping Contest which just starts and will ends on January next year. Keeping Contest is a routine occasion held by our Surabaya Goldfish Community (SGC).

Then I attended the eggs I collected from the day before. I checked the water. If there was any sign of foulness, I did the water change for the eggs:

After all these water change activities. I still had things to do. There were three bowls of cow ranchu (age: one week) to cull.

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After culling, I fed my goldfishes their breakfast. The diets include frozen bloodworm, live daphnia, and many types of pellets from different brands.

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Then I feed the daphnia culture:

I dedicate this large pond and many tubs to culture daphnia. I feed them with dried quail dung.

Last but not least, I must wash clean all the tools I use and clean the floor.

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After putting the nets on top of some tubs that need shading, I went home. All these took two and a half hour. I was exhausted, thirsty, and hungry. Back at home, I need to water my garden first, and feeding the goldfish I kept in my house. Then I enjoyed a glass of cold apple cider vinegar with honey (my favorite drink) and porridge breakfast with my lovely wife. After taking my bath, I joined the Sunday Service of my Church via online. That was my morning.