The new project I take this year is the Yellow Sakura Oranda.

It just occurred to me last year that it might be interesting to cross Sakura Oranda with my Yellow Goldfish. I pictured a goldfish with soft color skin as Sakura Oranda but the color is yellow white instead of red white. But I was not so sure about the upcoming result. Would the cross yield the color I imagined? Or would it be just orangish color which could not be clearly differentiated from the sakura color? Some transparent color goldfish have yellowish color, would my cross yield something differentiable from that?

I did this project out of curiosity. I just want to know.

After I separated the transparent from the metallic scale in the F1, I got all sakura color (red white). This is as expected, since yellow is recessive to red. I got the yellow color in the F1. Strangely, some of them had black marking. Perhaps the sakura oranda I used in the crossing was carrying the calico genetics. They were not perfect.

This one was not neat. The fins looked weak. Yet, I could confirm the color as yellow instead of red. I was very glad with this first result in terms of color. When I write this blog, the fish is no more.

The second yellow sakura had some improvements. The fins looked good, the body shape was more stout. The yellow color was a bit too little, but it was ok. I really liked this one. I managed to cross this with my metallic yellow oranda once, and this guy died.

I was left with several yellow sakura offspring.

One thing about sakura coloration is that the pattern counts. When the red color is too dominant, or when the red and white pattern was too plain (such as half the body is red and half is white), the fish becoming uninteresting for me. I consider a combination of red and white in proportional amount with some red islands as good pattern. I applied the same appreciation standard to my yellow sakura. So, I culled out a lot with dull pattern, and kept just one precious gem. This one piece is the one I currently have. The body quality is good enough, although there is a slight defect in the lower tail lobe and the dorsal which disqualify him from the contest. But, I found the pattern very beautiful. I think I can see two cartoon eyes in the pattern. And the soft yellow color combined with the milky white is more than I can expect. I also succeed in getting rid of the black pigment from the fish.

I take several pictures of him. Please enjoy. Merry Christmas.