Category Archives: brown ranchu

blue ranchu, brown ranchu

The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2026 (#1)

Update: Blue, Brown Ranchu

There is an unexpected twist on these projects. This is the story.

I mentioned that I almost lost all my ranchu lines in my previous posts last year. Only one Blue Ranchu left in my collection. To revive them, I acquired Blue Ranchu from a friend breeder who once bought the seed from me. I also bought some Brown and Purple Ranchu from another friend breeder who also got the seed from me. They might have crossed my original lineage to other Ranchu to maintain the genetic vigor, which is good, but will still relatively close to my lineage, which is good for me.

The twist comes from the Blue Ranchu that I bought. I noticed that several Blue Ranchu my friend breeder offered on the internet have whitish color in the neck area which sometimes carry over to the belly area. I did not have the exact picture of the fish. But this one offspring illustrates my point well. This one is a result of crossing the Blue Ranchu with the one remaining in my collection.

At first, I think the white area in the neck and abdoment is normal. Some of my Blue Ranchu shows the demelanization process to become blue and white fish, or sometimes even black and white if the blue is too dense. Some even become totally white. I was not aware of anything. But when my cross yielded some Kirin Ranchu and Calicos, I began to study the fish closely.

The Neck
The Belly

The white color in the neck is fully covered with metallic scale, makes me falsely believe this fish (and the fish I bought) is a truly metallic scale fish. But I fail to examine the white part of the belly. If we watch closely, we will notice that it lacks the metallic shine. It is a sign that the fish has transparent side in its gene.

I remembered that my friend breeder also acquired from me my line of Cow Ranchu (transparent scale). My guess is that he made a cross between the cow and the blue at a certain point in time and then tried hard to bring back the metallic scalation, resulting in this kind of phenotype. The specimen is almost totally metallic scale! But when we think they are truly metallic, we will be surprised when we see the offspring. We might think, how come metallic x metallic produces some transparent scale.

Without being aware of this fact, I must have crossed that false metallic Blue with the brown Ranchu I acquired from my other friend breeder. After 2nd generation, I noticed strange brown color. I got totally transparent Brown Ranchu! I thought it was weird. And I wanted to know how it will grow. Too bad, I did not take a picture of the fish in that state. I was thinking to document it later on. But strangely, as the fish grew into adulthood, it developed in metallic scale Brown Ranchu! This is the fish I am talking about.

Who will think that this one is not a metallic Brown in the first place?

But if we watch closely to the neck and belly area, we will know that the light color part comes from the transparent scale genetics. It is not a trully Metallic Brown Ranchu.

What is even more interesting is the pattern on its back noticed by my other friend breeder. There is a play between dark and lighter brown color to create a beautiful pattern. A trully metallic brown cannot produce that kind of pattern, as far as I know.

The dark and light brown pattern

Another offspring is a male Brown Ranchu, with no such pattern, but with a lighter belly pattern.

The lighter color is orange and white. Beautiful, right?

The pattern reminds us of Kirin Ranchu. But this comes in Brown variation.

I do personally think that this is not a setback to my Brown Ranchu Project. Yes, it is unexpected, but it enhances the beauty of the Brown Ranchu. I welcome this twist. The world of goldfish still surprises me.

What will it be like if this kind of variation comes in Purple Ranchu? It is yet to be seen.

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blue ranchu, brown ranchu, purple ranchu

The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2024 (2)

For the last several years I focused too much on developing my Blue, Brown, and Purple Oranda line. I postponed the Ranchu projects on the same color to the point of neglecting them. I must confess that all my Blue, Brown, and Purple Ranchu line were wiped out almost completely. There is only a single old male Blue ranchu left. I can hardly do anything with that. So, basically, these projects must be restarted from zero.

Is he not handsome? He is a large fish. Personally, I like his strong body type. It is a bit long but with a balanced body width. And he has a thick waist. His headgrowth is decent. Yes, he has some obvious weaknesses in the smoothness of his back curve and the angle of his tail. Hopefully I can still have his offspring that carries the positive features. But I must act quickly, because he is losing his vigor due to old age.

I tried to find other breeders that might carry the blue and brown genetics. I do not worry about the purple, since if I can get blue and brown, I can recreate the purple. Gladly, I find breeder friends who bought from me before and are still keeping the genetics of these rare colors.

From Mr. Malek I bought some of his Blue Ranchu. He acquired the gene from my line before, and he crossed it with his own fishes. These two females are in my possession right now.

They are very fertile, and that is the most important thing for me. I also bought a male blue from him just for a reserve. But since these two females are good at laying eggs, I do not want to mate the male with them. Looking at the specimen here, I must admit they have their charm. I do not want to produce the same line. I want to differentiate a bit.

These two females show two spectrums of blue color, the lighter and the darker ones. Their body type can be considered medium short. This is the first point of difference with my male. The curve is varied, but I believe my friend has lots of good quality ones. The tail is also varied. The headgrowth is more well -developed than mine. This is the second point of difference. I make a cross between my line (the old male) with these two. I am tending their newly hatched offspring right now. Wish me success.

From Mr. Aji Linting I acquired this Brown Ranchu:

He acquired the brown (and also purple) from me a long time ago when I have just started. At that time, my line was of low quality. My friend crossed it with the previous type of Thailand’s Black Ranchu since he appreciated that variant very much. We can see the trace of the Black Ranchu feature in this male specimen. I was breeding that Black variant twenty years ago, so I am familiar with the features. New hobbyists might not be familiar with it. Anyway, looking at the bright brown color, I am very enthusiastic!

I acquired several male and female. Some with purple combination. But I focus on this brown male Ranchu as my material. I already crossed him with the two female Blue Ranchu and am waiting for the offspring to grow. Wish me success also on this project.

I also acquire a red and white Ranchu from local breeder to use in my crossing:

He is an enormous fish. He is handsome in his own way. But for me, I do not like the indentation in his upper neck and his excessive headgrowth covering his eyes. But still, this is the best I can find so far. I plan to cross him with the two Blue Female to enrich the blue genetics I have. The richer the gene pool the more choices I have to work on improving my Blue Ranchu quality. And also, I think I might need to have my own red and white lineage. Hmmm, let’s see ….

That is the update so far. Stay tuned.

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blue ranchu, brown ranchu, Chocolate Ranchu, purple ranchu, The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2023

The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2023 (12)

Project #9,10,11: Blue, Brown, and Purple Ranchu Update

The fish I mentioned in the diary #6 show promising results. The cross produces four colors at once: grey, brown, purple and blue. I do not post the grey here. I will focus on the brown, purple, and blue. These are the champions after the final cull.

Brown Ranchu:

I am satisfied with these two brown ranchu, especially the first one. She shows beautiful smooth and thick curve. She can grow into a large and beautiful fish. Yes, she has weak headgrowth, and the size of the head is a bit small compared to the body. I plan to improve it by crossing with red-white ranchu that has better characteristic on this area. I think I will have beautiful offspring from this crossing next year.

The second fish is also female. So I do not have a male brown ranchu right now. The second fish is cute. She has a better headgrowth with more proportional head and body ratio. Well, actually I do not mind which one will be the next mother for my brown ranchu project. Both are adorable in their own ways.

Purple:

Well, this is the only purple that can survive the cull. And the quality is far below expectation. The head is totally bald. The peduncle is long and slim / thin. Those are two characteristics I would like to avoid. But he is the only one I have. So, my future purple ranchu lineage might depend on him. The color is attractive, though.

Blue:

The pictures were taken under afternoon sunlight. So the blue color looks a bit like purple due to the excessive sunlight. The first fish is female. I am not sure about the second one. The headgrowth is unique. The first has a little headgrowth, while the second one is bald. The curve of the first one is almost flat in the upper back, and sharply curves down before the tail. The second one has highest point of the back curve a bit to the front, which then slopes down not in a sharp manner. The color of the second fish is rich in gold combination.

I will certainly consider these blue to be my next parent fish. But I also have with me a different line of blue ranchu with a totally different character. I will compare them to decide what to do when they are ready to breed.

As a conclusion, I think my prize in this project is the brown ranchu.

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blue ranchu, brown ranchu, purple ranchu, The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2022

The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2022 (16)

Update on several ranchu projects.

In my plan, I am supposed to concentrate on my ranchu projects this year. But I must confess that I am too occupied with tosakin instead of focusing on ranchu. It is already October. The year will end soon. I have not made any significant progress on my brown, purple, and blue ranchu projects. But I think I still need to report my progress here.

To follow up the diary #6, most of the offspring are not satisfying in terms of the quality. I took a big risk by sorting out almost all of them. I kept only one female from each type. And I am not proud with the quality.

Yes, there is a bump near the tail area. The color is good, though.

This purple ranchu has a rough back curve.

This tricolor is actually a blue ranchu that lost some of its melanin. She has been in this stable color for months. I hope she will continue to be like this. However, the back curve is very bumpy.

I mated these three with my two male semi-purple ranchu:

The results are few. They are 7 cm right now. And I think I see some interesting quality. Thank God!

I will take their pictures when they are older and provide the update later on.

Have a nice day!

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