Playing with pattern

Pattern is not one of the judging criteria in competition nowadays. However, pattern always has its own way to fascinate hobbyist all the time, from beginners to experts. History shows that some breeders had focused on pattern appreciation all along. Red cap oranda is one famous pattern that still exists until today. Jikin breeders are masters of pattern creation with their 12 red goldfishes. I am sure pattern will always find its way in the heart of goldfish hobbyist.

There is a science to the pattern manipulation. Unfortunately, this science is mostly unkown. I believe much of the knowledge is lost. Some who know tend to keep it secret. Most hobbyist are not aware that this can be an area to pursue. The undermining of pattern criteria in competition might contribute to this ignorance. The ethical assault faced by those who practice this art also contribute to the secrecy of this knowledge.

For me, I tend to think that this is interesting. My own experiment has led me to conclude that water parameter, food content, and background color can be used to manipulate the pattern. Other things such as whether it is outdoor or indoor, whether to use biological filtration or routine water change, the density of fishes, the PH parameter, and so on, seem to contribute to the pattern building. Tricks employed by Jikin breeders also seem to work but not to all goldfish. Some goldfish are easier to manipulate while some seem to resist manipulation. This need to be explained genetically.

Wakin and jikin are among the easiest to manipulate. Some oranda react well to manipulation tricks, while some like orange oranda are harder to manipulate. In my experience, ranchu is more difficult to manipulate.

Below is the results of my experiment on pattern building. I am not in the position yet to tell readera what I have been doing. I am still learning. Perhaps later on as I understand more, I will tell. The fishes I used are the oranda that have wakin genetics. They are my F3 from my oranda – wakin cross, which have been crossed back to oranda. I find that most of them are easy to manipulate, but not as easy as wakin. Some from the same batch cannot be manipulated, no matter what I do. Seems that the fish that mutate earlier from its wild color state into red and white is easier to manipulate. The one that takes longer to mutate is harder.

Enjoy.

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Ogon goldfish – is it possible?

Guanine is the substance responsible to produce the shiny metallic look in the scale of goldfish. When the guanine is absent, we will have the transparent colored goldfish such as sakura and calico. In goldfish world, as far as we know the guanine is found in the scale. It is sometimes found in the gill also. But I have never heard anyone mention about the presence of guanine in the fins. The fins of goldfish is commonly found in its transparent state. Lately, as I was observing my fishes, I noticed a certain yellow fish that have unusual deposit of guanine in its pelvic fins. This is the picture I take this morning:

It is quite shiny compared to others such as this:

I begin to recall that koi has a variety called ogon, which has shiny fins. I begin to suspect that what makes ogon koi have shiny fins is the abundance of guanine level in its fin. And my mind keep thinking whether it is possible to create ogon like goldfish, that is the goldfish with shiny metallic fins. An ogon goldfish might look like this photoshop image below. Notice the unusual shine in the fins. It will be very eye-catching in the tank. (Sorry for the low quality image).

The yellow fish I have makes me think that this is possible. It is just that nobody has tried this. It will be a tedious project though. Maybe we will need to select fishes that have more than usual guanine deposit in its fins and use them as parent fishes. Maybe this need to be done for many generation through selective breeding until a truly ogon goldfish is created. It will be a long journey. But this will create a new kind of goldfish! Does anybody want to take this challenge?

Purple goldfish

Purple, really?

My last attempt in Nov 2014 to cross bluegoldfish and chocolate one resulted on one purplish goldfish in the second generation. I was so excited to see it grow. Unfortunately it died early, taking away all my hope with it. Then there was also a problem with my facilities which required a couple of months to repair. My breeding activity was halted.

But now, things are settled, and I can resume my breeding activity. I try to cross parents again. Just for reminder, the parents are the F1 of blue x chocolate. It must be admitted that the purple is always a minority in the offspring. But this time, instead of one, I get about 10 purple! What a joy!

To see the variation of color, I take this picture this morning. The fish in the top position is the blue. Three fishes in the middle are the purple. E one in the bottom left is the grey/green/wild color. The bottom right one is the chocolate. Hopefully you can see their color differentiation.

the purple is what Shishan Chen in his writing reported as the intermediate color between blue and chocolate yet distinguishable from the two. Some other ancient books labeled it as purple, and I will use that name for this particular color.

Three of the purple fishes have turned into white, perhaps due to the warm temperature of my tub. Hopefully not all of them turn white. But this shows that the purple have the capacity to become purple and white, which might be interesting. I do not know yet how it looks like.

Well, hopefully everything is allright, and we can see the mature result of the purple goldfish. After that, I think I will aim at creating purple ranchu.

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

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.

Chocolate Ranchu

updates Jan 16th, 2015

The whole project is frustrated. The prototype chocolate ranchu in the previous posting, the only one, is dead. When I came back from the holiday a week ago, I found the fish died.

Must start it over again.

Chocolate Ranchu

Chocolate Ranchu updates Dec 25th

This is the F2 of the chocolate ranchu project. I am glad to see this fish, since it is totally free from any trace of dorsal fin, and the chocolate color is present. In this F2, very few chocolate color occurs. Most of them have abominable traces of dorsal, and weak compared to the wild color ones. To find such a piece, though only one, is a joy to me.

In terms of shape, this one has a high hump, which must be tackled on though it is not so easy. Glad I have experienced this in my panda ranchu project. This hump might be the last thing to tackle.

The tail is a bit long. I do not worry about this. Crossing back to ranchu will eventually shorten the tail. But I think, as an excess, long tail chocolate ranchu with pom pom will be nice 🙂

The pompom is also something to tackle on. Actually, I am not sure to retain this pom pom or not. According to standard, a ranchu should not have the pom pom. But it might indeed look nice in this chocolate breed. Well, let it be what it will be. I might not bother to tackle it.

From this point, I think to create a decent chocolate ranchu, I will need at least four more breeding step. This will mean 2 years at least. But the result of the 1st year might yield unique breeds saleable to collectors 🙂

There are two worries. First, since there is only 1 fish, this project is in jeopardy if something happen to it. So, I have prepared the second batch for spare. Second, the chocolate color occurs so few in the batch. Fewer than the blue I create from a cross between blue and common color. Does this mean that the chocolate color behave differently genetically from the blue? If yes, then there might be some complication I have not yet understood. I hope there won’t be such complication.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Panda Ryukin

Update on Panda Ryukin Dec 25th, 2014

This article is the update on my panda ryukin breeding project. The fishes here are the F2.

The first fish has the best shape resembling ryukin. The second one is a bit elongated and has smaller hump. The rest of the batch have almost no hump. So, in term of the body shape, there is a need to cross once again with a good and decent ryukin. But this cross will sacrifice the color. So, to finish this project, I need two more breeding step: to enhance the body shape, and then to enhance the color.

The fish might be ready to spawn in perhaps two months later. I am glad for the progress so far.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.

Panda Ryukin

Panda Ryukin – growth progress

Now the body parts can be seen clearly already. The color is light blue. I am glad that I can see the hump potential on them, since I do not think that the hump will be decent in them even when they are mature later on. If the hump is good in this batch, then it will be a pleasing surprise for me. There is not much to do right now other than feeding them well and wait till they are ready to spawn – which is about 5 months from now. There is not much to sort anymore. If i sort them based on the single anal tail, then I will be left with none. Their number has been reduced to 9, so I think I will not sort out anything anymore. I might need only 2 or 3 later on for breeding, so I will choose the best shape among them. Sex won’t be a matter, since I will cross it back with red and white ryukin. If I have a male panda ryukin from this batch, then I will find a female red-white ryukin; if I have a female panda, then I will find a male red-white one to mate with. Next update will be some more months to come, to see whether there is any that will have a decent ryukin body or not, and also about the color, whether they become panda, or they are staying blue.

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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Sakura Coloration on Ranchu-like Goldfish

As mentioned before, I am trying to create tricolor metallic scale ranchu. This project directed me into crossing a tricolor metallic scale tosa with ranchu. By tosa I mean the ryukin which has no hump. It turns out that all of the offsprings shows a combination of metallic scale and transparant scale on the body. My conclusion is that the tricolor metallic scale I used is actually a variant of calico (transparant scale) goldfish which somehow develops metallic scale all over the body. This is not a genuinely metallic scale. The piece I have here shows minimum metallic scale. The body is mostly covered with transparant scale. And it looses the black color and turns into sakura color.

Don’t ask me about the body form resulting from this crossing. Horrible. This one is the best in terms of the back smoothness. The shape is not ranchu yet, that’s why I cannot call this a ranchu. The head resembles a tosa or ryukin since it has no headgrowth. And it has a hump! My first impression when I look at this piece is the image of a cow. But instead of a black and white cow, this is a red and white one.

The sakura color is impressive on this one. The red is truly red, it is not orange. And the white is milky white. Adorable. And the pattern is pleasing to the eyes. When the sakura is dominated by the red or orange color, it looks horrible to me. But this fish has the right amount of red and white combination, according to my perception. This is the sakura coloration I want to create, though not in this body form. The large red dots look like the brush strokes from an expert painter.

hermantogoldfish

My projects on Goldfish

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