In my Diary #8 2024 I mentioned the emergence of a beautiful tricolor Ranchu out of nowhere. Well, it is not really from nowhere, but from (unexpectedly) my cow ranchu project. From that moment on, my tricolor breeding strategy diverged into two separate paths. The first path was to follow the inbreeding of my initial stocks. The second path was to cross the unexpected tricolor ranchu with my initial stock. In this diary, I will talk about the second path, that is from the cross between these two:
Male (unexpected stock)Female (initial stock)
The offspring shows some interesting result in terms of coloration. Some exhibits strong black pigmentation on top of white or red-white color. This leads me to think that they are decent panda / tricolor ranchu! The quality of the body form varies. But as long as I can get the color genetics right, it is not that difficult to improve, I think.
Here are four of the results. In fact, one of them has become a decent tricolor ranchu!
From the topview, some of the black and white color look startling!
I do hope I can realize my goals of creating panda / tricolor ranchu from these fishes.
As a follow up to Diary 2024 (5) and (8), I would like to refresh our memory that I was left with these fellows:
The bad news is that all are male.
So, to continue the project, I acquired several Cow Ranchu from a local breeder, two male and two female specimens. Too bad, they did not last long. I did not have a chance to take proper pictures of them. Here is a lousy picture using my handphone:
My first instinct was to cross the three male Ranchu (left picture) with these cows. They did not carry black fish nor cow pattern in the offsprings. Some were white, sakura and calico with dotted black patterns. I got rid of the white. Here are two offspring that I keep. Both of them are female:
The first to lay eggs was the calico. It was about three months ago. So, this diary is about the offspring of this calico female. The sakura lays eggs recently and the offspring is just 2 centimeters long. It will take a couple more months or so to update on them.
Since the calico female was so productive, I mated her with several male fish.
First, I mated her with her uncle. Remember the calico fish in the upmost middle picture? It has turned into a calico with lots of black patterns:
BeforeAfter
So, just to be more systematic, the first cross is this:
MaleFemale
And the offsprings I kept after lots of culling are:
12345
Fish 1 seems to inherit the strong black pattern from the father. I treasure this strong black pattern feature for the next breeding.
Fish 2 seems to be a balanced mix from both parents, creating a pleasant pattern. I do notice there is a large block of black pattern in the back, which is good. If the fish can get rid of the red, blue and little dotted black pigment, it will be left with white color and that large black block. It will be a beautiful cow ranchu.
Fish 3 is the closest to the cow pattern I am looking for. I hope I can create more of this pattern. So, this fish is my first priority in the next breeding.
Fish 4 is weak, since it has no large black pattern. It has only few small dotted black pigments. It has no red and less of the blue shadow, which is good for a cow. I think if I cross this with a Ranchu with strong black pigment, there is a chance it will produce beautiful offspring. So, I keep it as a reserve.
Fish 5 shows that this cross can produce black / grey offspring, and also offspring with metallic scale. This is good, since this kind of fish might come handy in the next crossing.
The second cross is between the cow and the calico female:
MaleFemale
And these are the results:
12344 from sideview
Do notice that this cross does not produce any black / grey nor metallic fish.
Fish 1 is a sakura which I will not use.
Fish 2 is a weak color. The red is not a strong red. It is more of a pale orange color. And the black pigmentation is weak. I will not use it.
Fish 3 is a calico with weak red and black color. I will not use.
Fish 4 is interesting. It is almost totally white with minimal blue coloration and red color, which is what I need. Too bad it also has less black pigment. But as the sideview picture shows, the black pattern is interesting, reminding me of a belt pattern. I think it is nice to see how the offspring will turn out when crossing this with a fish that has strong black pigment. I only keep this one from this crossing.
The third crossing is a metallic tricolor ranchu with the calico female. This tricolor comes from a black fish (also calico offspring from my previous breeding project) that turns into this spectacular pattern. There is only one specimen of this.
MaleFemale
And the results are:
1234
I think fish 1, 2 and 3 are pretty similar. They are dominated by white color with a little bit of red, blue and black which make them nice to see. They all have not so large but also not too small black pattern. I decide to keep them all.
Fish 4 show that this cross carries the black / grey and metallic gene.
Last crossing is between a black uncle and the calico female:
MaleFemale
Let me show the results:
1234
Fish 1 and 2 are calico with weak black pigmentation. The red color is stronger than the 2nd cross. I do not think I will use these two.
I guess my reader will know for an instance that I will keep fish 3 for the same reason I mention in the analysis of the previous crossing above. So also with fish 4. I will keep all black / grey fish at this moment.
For friends who follow my Cow Ranchu projects and anticipate much (like myself), I must inform two bad news. First, all the offspring from both the Cow x Black and Cow x Sakura result in 100% male fish! That is a disaster for a breeder. Before I finish lamenting, there was an outbreak in my farm that cost me almost all of them. The Cow x Sakura line was totally wiped out. Fortunately, I managed to save few from the Cow x Black line.
These three patterns from the Cow x Black survived:
My main plan was to cross the first pattern type (the left picture) with the black colored sibling. But it was not possible since all were male. As a change of plan, I buy another female Cow Ranchu and cross it with the first type. Too bad the female cow died after delivering her first offspring before I took any documentary of her. I might post the result later on. But for now I can report that there is no single black in the offspring. After this mating, I sell all the first type pattern since I do not think I need them for my project anymore. I still keep the second type pattern and the black. And here the interesting news comes!
The black offspring turn into two handsome princes!
I kept two best of them. One of them turn into a black gold, and another one into tricolor pattern!
Aren’t they handsome?
I find that the black color is so persistent in them. It makes me full of hope. At least, not for my Cow Project, but for my Tricolor Ranchu Project! It is like getting a lottery!
Of course, I know that the stability of the pattern here is under question. Will they stay? Well, I am still observing. And when I cross them with fish from my Tricolor Project, how is the compatibility knowing that they come from Cow lineage?
Now, let me update on my Tricolor Project.
The project had shown a good progress. My latest offspring consists of some male and female shark ranchu (bad body form) with strong tricolor pattern. I highlight the strong pattern here. After I achieve that, the rest of the project becomes easier. I just need to improve on the body formation.
But when the outbreak kills lots of my fish, I am left with one female only! I was heartbroken. If this single fish died, then I must restart this project that I have done for several years. So sad.
This is the survivor:
I mated this female with the two male Ranchu above. Frankly, it is hard for me to make a prediction of what will the offspring be. My hope is to have Tricolor Ranchu, of course.
First try, all the eggs cannot hatch.
Second try, no luck. I begin to suspect this female is infertile.
But I still try.
Third attempt, same result. Not even a single offspring. Actually, at this time I also mated this female with a ryukin just to make sure that the infertile ones were not the male. Same result, The possibility of the female being infertile is high!
Yet, I still try.
In the fourth attempt, I mated the female with the two princes above, with a ryukin, and with a tricolor Oranda! And guess what? All hatched perfectly!
If you ask me how come, I do not know.
Now, I am raising all of them. They are 3 cm in length right now.
Then, I try again to mate the female with the two princes for the fifth, and sixth time, and nothing hatched. The female resumes her infertility.
Well, I have no explanation for this. But I thank God for the one successful shot (the fourth attempt).
And let’s see the results in several months to come.
hermantogoldfish 