Wowkin

wowkin update Jan 17th, 2015

My wowkins have passed its one year life span now. Some show the desired tail shape. The size is satisfying. They can grow large enough. The red coloration is also good. The body shape deviates a bit from the plan, though. I was thinking of a body exactly like the wakin. But my best wowkin (in terms of the tail shape) has a body in between wakin and tosakin. This can be seen clearly in the picture

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My attempt to inbreed the wowkins results in body types just like the current wowkin and also shorter type, but the tails are long. I think I cannot get the desired wakin body from inbreeding. So, right now I am crossing  my current wowkin back to wakin. The pair is shown in the picture above. The wakin is the male.

What to expect from this cross? I think I will get the body right. The tail might have a drawback, though. But I am hoping a small percentage of the ideal wowkin to occur from this cross. If this happens, then the rest is just selective breeding.

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Wowkin

Wowkin update June 2014

The wowkin has grown well so far. They come in several different forms, from the long body to short body, from the long tail to short tail. I think I have decided to keep only the one closest to my ideal in the first place. This afternoon, I find this one which is very similar to the picture of wowkin I painted in the first place. The body shape is just like wakin, the color is as intense as wakin, the tail has split just as I want it, the spread and flexibility of the tail is just as I imagine, and the small tosakin flip is also there! This is my dream coming true! Unfortunately, there is only one as perfect as this. Others have variation here and there. These are three latest photographs of the wowkin. Forgive the quality of the photo, since I took it just now under low sunlight. Do enjoy the tail dance.

 

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Wowkin

The idea of wowkin

It is understandable that what I am pursuing here in the creation of wowkin is not really clear. Some people might not be able to see the value of it. Actually, the idea is pretty clear for me, but the creation itself is a process. I do not know whether the fishes I have now will eventually conform to my idea or not. If not, they might just be fishes with no apparent difference from common goldfish.

I have stated early that wowkin will be a pond fish. The body, size and color will be that of wakin. The uniqueness will be on the tail. I mentioned before that the tail is a combination between wakin tail and tosakin tail. That explanation does not conform to my idea accurately. If wakin is perceived as a fish with open tail all the time, then it is not my idea for such tail to be included in wowkin. Wowkin should have the ability to open and close its tail flexibly.

Underneath this idea is the picture of a dancing tail. I once cross a ryukin with a tosakin, resulting on an unnamed variety with a very beautiful tail feature in my perception. The tail is able to dance marvelously in the water. I have never seen such a fish before, and after. However, I was in my early breeding years at that time, and had no courage to differ from the popular. I discontinued the production for good.

Now, as I have acquired more experience in breeding, that picture of the dancing tail comes up to my mind again frequently. I realized that I have forsaken a valuable feature just because I dare not differ myself. Now as I do not care too much anymore with reputation, I think it is time for me to pursue it once again. My option is to once again crossbreed ryukin and tosakin to make a side-view ryukin with new kind of tail, or to create a pond fish. Since right now I am charmed by the simplicity of wakin, I decided to pursue the second option. Someday I might come back to the first option, but for now, wowkin is my project to pursue.

So, yes, this might be an unexplored appreciation: a dancing tail. Whether it is unexplored or forgotten, I do not really know. The fish is too young right now, but some has shown a limited dancing capability. I do not know whether it will be improving as the fish mature or not, but I certainly hope it will. The issue of whether the wowkin should be a short tail, medium or long, is not decided right now. I will just see which one will be best as they mature. For now, let’s focus on the dancing capability of the tail. Below are some pictures showing one fish with the capability to have many different formations, from close tail to open tail, from plain tail to curly tail, from left side open curly tail to left side open curly tail. It is a beautiful dance.

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Wowkin

Wowkin March 2014

Here is the updates on the wowkin project. I keep the long-bodied one: the body that resembles wakin. They can be categorized into two types: the long tail, such as these:

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(too bad the last one in the picture above must be culled out since the right tail has a defect)

and the short tail, such as these:

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In my opinion, the short tail type is closer to my original ideal. But I think I might broaden the definition by including the long tail also. I will keep both type to see how the tail become in its maturity.

And these are the rejects:

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I reject them not because of their tail, but because of their body, which looks like the more fancy goldfish type such as oranda. I will limit the definition of wowkin to the long body type since wowkin is meant to be a pond fish.

Now the remaining time is to wait them grow and to see the result.

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Wowkin

Wowkin Updates 1

It has been almost 3 months I raise my first attempt of wowkins. Here I present three of them with the most beautiful colors.

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When I compare them with my original imagination, these pieces have the intended body, which is the body of wakin. The color is also good. It seems to me that the red can be as deep as that of wakin. Well, there are some outliers, where the body is shorter, just like the body of an oranda. Some have full orange color, which needs more time to determine whether the orange can turn into red or not. Nothing can be said concerning the size now, it needs more time to see if they can grow large. Basically, the body shape and color is satisfactory.

Concerning the tail, there are four features involved: the middle split of the tail, the length of the tail, the presence of the tosakin flip in the tips of the tail and the ability to open and close the tail naturally.

Wakin is dominant in having tail split, while tosakin is dominant in having no tail split. My guess was the split will be dominant over the no split characteristic. It turns out that I am wrong. The majority of the offspring have no tail split, just like tosakin! Only few has half tail spllit, and it is rare to have the full tail split. So, I guess the no tail split is dominant over the tail split characteristic. Hopefully readers well versed in biology can verify this.

The offspring have medium or close to long tail size, which is not my intention. My original idea was to have short tail size. Probably this is due to my using waron (wakin oranda cross) as one of the parent instead of using wakin directly. But I have another chance to cross wakin directly with tosakin. Unfortunately, due to the difficulty of hand spawning  large wakin with small tosakin together, I only have few eggs, with only one decent offspring. This one still have long tail, and undivided (no split) tail characteristic! So, maybe the long tail is dominant over the short tail also.

The presence of the flip is there, and I am happy with this. It is my intention to have small flip, which will add the delight in the tail dance. It is shown especially in the right fish in the picture below.

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The ability to open and close the tail naturally is also there. The picture I present below shows a piece where the tail is in close position, while other pictures show the same fish having open tail. This ability to open and close the tail will differentiate this wowkin from tosakin appreciation, and will let the wowkin to be a better swimmer. This will also contribute heavily to the beauty of the tail dance.

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So, from here, I will simply wait for them to grow up, and inbreed them with the hope that their F2 will contain some shorter and splitted middle tail. I will then concentrate on them.

 

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wowkin offspring

Though wowkin is meant to be a wakin and tosakin cross, I do not actually cross them directly. I have first crossed wakin with oranda, producing a wakin-like fish but with a longer and close tail. They are big fishes, with barely visible headgrowth so far. I do not know if there is any official name for the fish. My friends call it Waron. This cross retains the large wakin body size and the deep red coloration. This is the fish that I cross with tosakin. The eggs hatched at 16 november 2013. I am so excited to see what will they actually look like. Will they be just like what I imagine? The picture shows them at the age of 10 days. I can already see some of them have long bodies. That’s a good thing. The tail is mostly semi wide, which is also good. When seen from side, most are flat, another good thing. I cannot see any flip in their tips for the moment, since they are too young. What I am worried about is that most of themhave no split in their middle tails, just like tosakin. Hopefully the split will come in later on, just as what sometimes happen in split-tail offsprings.

Wowkin

wowkin offspring

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The idealization of Wowkin, a new variety I try to create. This is meant to be a pond fish which can swim well. The body resembles wakin, with its large body size and deep red coloration. The tail is made to be more impressive than wakin but shall not restrict the ability of the fish to swim. What I have in mind is not a normal tosakin tail, but a semi tosakin tail. It is kind of smaller tosakin tail, retaining tosakin’s flip on its tips and a thousand ray flavor, but has a split in the middle of the tail and is more flexible, so the tail will be wide open when in stationary but close when swimming. This kind of tail is designed to help the fish swim better than tosakin, I hope.

Wowkin

Wowkin

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