The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2022 (10)

This update covers the evolution of my Dancing Queen (DQ) Project.

To refresh a little bit, my original DQ project was meant to create sideview tosakin. This was the best result from the year 2020 after several years of effort:

But I guess it was a lonely journey. I decided to terminate the project for good. I was struggling at that time. It was hard for me to let go my lovely babies. Just before I let go all my DQ, I made an unthoughtful move by mating my last DQ with a grey Rosetail Oranda. Perhaps in my subconscious awareness I was hoping that Oranda with DQ tail might receive better acceptance. As a result, I ended up with few beautiful grey Oranda like this:

But I quickly realized they could not display their beautiful tail in deep water pond. So, once again, I was thinking of terminating them. But, as before, I managed to unthoughtfully breed them before I sold them. And I think I hit a jackpot. Some of the offspring have flatter tail, making them more suitable for shallow water and top-viewing. So I kept three of them in my large shallow pond along with my tosakin. As the fishes grew mature, I was amazed with the development. One of them grew into a very beautiful fish. Every time I showed him to my friends, they cannot help marvel at its tail. It is visibly different from tosakin tail. And I cannot stop taking his pictures:

And this is the tail position when he swims forward:

The tail is way longer and larger than my Tosakin, and softer. There is a flavor of the rosetail effect which is absent in Tosakin. Yes, it is very similar to the Orchid Tail developed by friends in Thailand. Since it has no legal name yet, my friends and I call it Oranda Dancing Queen (Oranda DQ). And I think I would like to develop it further to be one of my signature.

Too bad, the female are not as good as this male. This is one productive female which I breed with him:

I hope there will be some decent offspring resembling the father.

But I think I need to improve its color and enhance the tail feature. So, I decided to cross the handsome male with Tosakin. I know, this might impact negatively to the headgrowth. But I think I can work it out later on. The tail might look closer to tosakin, but I think I can select some closer to the father. And these are some of the current results:

With this piece as the best, I think:

I can still see the softness characteristic of the tail.

So, my DQ has evolved into Oranda DQ.

Well, let’s wait how these babies will develop in the future. Will they grow their headgrowth? Will the tail become as handsome as their father’s? Let’s hope so!

dancing queen, The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2021

The Diary of a Goldfish Breeder 2021 (14)

This is a tribute to my Dancing Queen. Several years ago I tried to create a side-view version of Tosakin. I nicknamed the fish as the Dancing Queen to appreciate the beautiful playfulness of the tail. I successfully created an erect tail with split, and the tosakin flips could be enjoyed from side-viewing.

The tail was really a beauty. Yet, the body was weak and plain. The color was just orange or grey. I tried to improve the body and the coloration with this result:

The body was improved. The orange and white color was certainly an improvement. The tail seemed to be slightly smaller, yet still a decent one. However, it seemed that the market did not respond well. Besides that, I have a lot of other projects on goldfish. So, I struggled hard to let the project go. This fish was the last (and best) Dancing Queen I had, and I let a friend adopted her without leaving any offspring.

Well, perhaps it is natural for a breeder to have a deep attachment to his creation. I was ready to let go. But I still mated the uncle of the last Dancing Queen (a grey one, and sorry I did not take any picture of it) with an Oranda. I did not even remember which Oranda I used. This was not a planned project. And I did not expect anything. Such a cross might yield nothing of any worth. So, this cross was an uncalculated project, ready to be discarded at any moment.

Surprisingly, something good came out of this project! I did not expect to be able to get a decent oranda with dancing queen tail from the first attempt of the crossing. It was almost impossible, I thought. But the fact speaks otherwise. I ends up with two decent oranda with very beautiful Dancing Queen tail style! Yes, the color was only grey, but I think they are lovely.

This one is the first fish:

This is how the tail looks like when swimming (when the tail collapsed)

And this is the second fish:

There are oranda with similar type of tail in the market produced by Thailand breeders. They named the tail as Orchid tail. I do not know about the history of it, but I might walk in the same path as them.

This is the topview appearance of the fishes:

The appearance of these two disrupted my current oranda project. I already had my Basic Material Oranda. But the tail was Rosetail type (wrinkle tail). Compared to this Dancing Queen tail style, I think I face a great temptation to incorporate this type of tail into my Oranda. There is no way I ignore such a beauty.

So, last week I mated Helen the Oranda with these two 😊

Remember Helen?

Sometimes Helen shows a bit of tail flips similar to the Dancing Queen, though not always. I think this is a good sign. The mating between these fishes might yield an outstanding result.

I am enthusiastic to see the results 😊 Perhaps my Dancing Queen will evolve into Oranda with Dancing Queen tail shape.

dancing queen

The Dancing Queen

Years before, when tosakin was rare in my country, I was lucky to have some. Yet, the breeding of them was not successful. As the fishes got older, I got worried about losing them with no offspring. In my desperation, I crossed the male tosakin with a common tosa in the hope of getting some tosakin in the offspring. Tosa is the name Indonesian give to a long-tail ryukin-like fish with no hump. At that time, my understanding of breeding was still rudimentary. I did not know that to have a decent tosakin in F1 was hoping too much. I didn’t even plan for crossing back to the parent, since the parent was too old, already. I kept the offspring until they mature. I was disappointed not to get the tosakin I wanted. Yet, I saw some of them developing beautiful tails. I observed them from the top viewing perspective since I put them in the pond. They had long tails, splitted in the middle, with large tosakin flips. Yet, the tail collapsed compared to tosakin. Not even close to a decent tosakin. As I observed them, I marveled at them. One thing that captured my attention was the movement of the tail. The tail could collapse at one time, but could open up at another. The flips could play to the right and left alternately. The movement was totally different from tosakin. I got an impression that the movement was like dancing. As I observed them further from the side-view, my impression was confirmed. The tail movement was unique. It was beautiful. Yet, at that time, I dared not step outside the standard. They were not tosakin. They were not ryukin. They were not even common tosa! They were nothing of value! So, at last, I considered them as a failed tosakin. I discarded them.

As my confidence to step out of the standard grew, I began to consider them again. I remembered how beautiful was the movement of the tail. For the last years, I kept on thinking of reviving them again. I know goldfish is valued for its form and shape. Some, like me, still value its color. The high appreciation also values the elegant movement of the fish. But, I have never heard the appreciation talks about the movement of the tail. I could be wrong, though. But, as far as I know, I have never heard of it. So, if I want to revive that breed, with the movement of the tail as the highlight, I need to create a new category. Yes, the breed can be called a side-view tosakin. But, I do not feel good about it. I tend to give it the name of the dancing queen.

I do not know how the hobbyists will respond to this variety. I do not really care, actually. I will still breed them and observe how far can its potential be. Of course, I will be glad if people will one day appreciate it.