My experiment with Cow Ranchu is still ongoing. After so many attempts, I still have no clue of how to produce the color pattern. I had bought Cow Ranchu many times with limited success in breeding them. I grew suspicious concerning whether the fish (both male and female) had been treated in a certain way to prevent successful breeding. I had few offsprings, though. But at this point, none can be categorized as cow. The suspicion makes me reluctant to buy more import of Cow.

Yet, when an seller imported them once again, I was tempted to try this project once more. But I did not want to buy many. This time, I bought just one male. In my mind, this will be my last attempt to buy Cow Ranchu. If this also fails, I will stop buying them. To my surprise, this male is very vigorous! I bred him twice, with different female, and they gave me lots of offspring. He died afterwards. I have not taken a decent picture of these parents, but I have short videos of them.

In this diary, I will show the offspring from the first cross. It is between this male Cow Ranchu with a Sakura Ranchu. Well, it is not really Sakura since it has several black dots. But the dots are minimal, so it is closer to Sakura pattern. This Sakura is the result of my previous experiment with previously imported Cow Ranchu.

I am interested in knowing what color patterns are produced. And it is interesting to compare with the next diary where I cross the same male Cow with another fish.

I just take the pictures from top view for quick reference and classify them based on the color pattern. Here are they:

Many become Calico with good pattern quality. By definition, calico should have five colors visible. These offspring have blue, white, red, black, and orange / brown color. The blue color is strong. All the color is in good proportion. Actually, I like these offspring. But for my purpose (in understanding cow), I will not use them to further my project. So, I will sell all of them.

The second category is with lots of orange color and with no blue, so I put this in a different category from the calico. Perhaps, this fish can be said to have four color: orange, black, white, and the black pigment under the orange color (I do not know what to call it, it is definitely not blue). I will not use this one for my project, either.

This third category can be called three colors since it has red, white, and black color. But the black pigment is so minimal that this category can also be called Sakura. I am interested in this category. There is a story to it. I once bought a strikingly beautiful three colors transparent Ranchu from a farmer. This is the fish:

Such a marvelous color, isn’t it? Too bad, the breeder only had one. I asked him to find similar pattern in the batch and he could not find any. Upon questioning him how he came up with this color, he said he crossed the Cow Ranchu (from my lineage) with a Sakura Ranchu! He described the Sakura to have lots of red color with minimal black markings and several metallic scales in the body. This description matches the third category of the offspring I am talking above! That’s why, I will use this third category to further my experiment. If my experiment with Cow Ranchu takes a different turn to result on this kind of three colors, I do not mind at all! (Note: the three colors is female. It grew large in my facility and died without ever producing any egg).

The fourth category is the true Sakura. Actually, I do not think I will need them for the Cow Ranchu project. But one has an excellent body quality, which whets my appetite to breed it. I am sorry I have not taken the pictures right now. Hopefully, I will have the pictures next time.

The fifth category is the totally white / almost white fish. I am still considering their usage on this project. So I am undecided right now and will keep one. Perhaps the totally white one.

The last category are the black metallic fish. This is what I learn from the presence of this category. The fact that Cow Offspring (the milk cow variety) always produces decent number of black offspring means that black fish are involved in the making of milk Cow variety. Well, it is my conclusion. I can be wrong. But unless proven otherwise, I will keep this category and use it in my cow project.

And this is the end of my report today.

Enjoy!