Ga 009 - Ranchu Options

[GA Secretary]

Here's another one of my thai ranchu. I bought her on 25-Feb-2004 from Seah for $35. She was about 2 1/2 inches and a little over 3 months later she's is slightly over 5 inches. She's a Tie Bao Jing (Red/Black) but the black colouring comes and go which I find rather frustrating. It goes away whenever I put her in a filtered tank, yet quickly comes back once she returns to green water. I don't know why except maybe clear water is more stressful for her.



Above is her "baby" photo taken while she's still in the bag from the LFS. She's the one at the back with black markings on her body.





This is her today. She's NOT full of eggs; I pressed her relatively firm tummy while taking the photos, and nothing came out! It's would be like asking a fat woman on the street if she's pregnant, I guess.



Now you know why this colour combination, black/red, is known as Tie Bao Jin (铁包金) like liquid gold cooling down.





Above are photos of she swimming in a glass tank. She swims and floats level. Unlike most goldfish, she loves mealworms; I throw a couple in when I steal some from a neighbour. She lives in the same tub, enjoy the same upbringing as the ranchu in GA007 (which don't touch mealworms.)

Please may I have your comments? Thank you.

[Frankie]

err...pretty good structure. but is unfortunately too fat too. gotta rethink the diet part.

[Frankie]

Goosh! It's you again and this Ranchu also looks great! It may not be as stunning as the other ranchu but still a very fine example. I do, however, find it's a little too rounded around the tummy. It seems to grow big too quickly? Afterall, barely 3 months and it has doubled its size! Watch the amount of food you feed this one. The size of the head is proportionately smaller than it should, I think, because of the overzealous feeding and growth on its body.

Reduce feeding and it should continue to develop well!

By the way, are you serious about the meal worms? I've tried feeding them to my goldfish but they simply showed no interest. You know how goldfish would put anything into their mouth but I swear they didn't even bothered to try the meal worms.

[Frankie]

For a standard TBJ, the anal, pectoral, pelvic fins and tails must be full black. And it should come with a black top too. This should explain why the colour comes and goes - its TBJ gene is not stable.

Tail is good. General shape is good - Good curve and smoothness is there. It would be great if the caudal peduncle is a little more steeper. The head growth is still not so good though. For a 5-inch, I'm afraid it will not grow further. It's such a pity. The abdomen looks a little swell. I dun think you can do much about it already.

[GA Secretary]

Hello everybody

Here's a 15 seconds video of the Ranchu swimming in a glass tank. The video might show the fish isn't really that fat, and a fat fish can swim normally.

Enjoy the show.



Direct Link: http://rafflesgold.dyndns.org/~rg/video/ga009.mov

[Frankie]

Thank you for the video. I must confess I watch it over and over again. That sure looks like a healthy fish if it swims like that whole day.

I was actually expecting the fish to point its head down but it appears it can swim level.

Great ranchu you have!

[GA Secretary]

Here is an update after 4 months.



It's still fat but measures about 7 inches now. Still swims around happily and I have not observed any abnormal behavour despite its size. I tried to put it on a diet but it didn't work. Sorry for the lousy pic.

[GA Secretary]

Since the last update (above), this ranchu was kept in a 4 feet bio-filtered tank by herself instead of her usual habitat of a guppy tub of green water.

First observation after about 2 months in clear water is her red scaling started to fade noticebly. I had wanted to move her back into green water but I didn't get a chance to buy a larger tub to house her. So she remained in clear water and last week, she started floating near water surface when she rests at night, and sometimes point her ass skyward while she goes about looking for food. Gill infection was suspected and cured.

But since the 7 days salt treatment, she started having black markings on her body, first as dots on her back but now black strips appeared below her lateral line on both sides.

Please tell me what's wrong and the course of action to take.

[Frankie]

But since the 7 days salt treatment, she started having black markings on her body, first as dots on her back but now black strips appeared below her lateral line on both sides.

Please tell me what's wrong and the course of action to take. 

could be stress driven. putting back to green may rid the marks.
mine is the other way round, put in green, turn black, put in clear water, turn orange. i think black mark is in its gene already

[Frankie]

From the first pic that you showed us, its already clear that your fish has black color gene, and now its confirmed, its unstable! it will come and go whenever under stress.
if i were you, i wouldnt worry. after all you bought this fish knowing that it has black markings on its body, this should be no surprise to you then.

[Frankie]

If water quality is OK,these black marks will go away in abt 2 weeks,though it may reappear again later.
I've had one in which the black marks re-appeared after abt 6 months,but then dissapear again in 2 weeks.

[yamato38gunkei]

Since the last update (above), this ranchu was kept in a 4 feet bio-filtered tank by herself instead of her usual habitat of a guppy tub of green water.

First observation after about 2 months in clear water  is her red scaling started to fade noticebly.  I had wanted to move her back into green water but I didn't get a chance to buy a larger tub to house her. So she remained in clear water and last week, she started floating near water surface when she rests at night, and sometimes point her ass skyward while she goes about looking for food.  Gill infection was suspected and cured.

But since the 7 days salt treatment, she started having black markings on her body, first as dots on her back but now black strips appeared below her lateral line on both sides.

Please tell me what's wrong and the course of action to take. 

It means that your Ranchu was sick but that it is recovering now. It are the areas were the slime was damaged due to sickness, parasites etc. Do not worry, your Ranchu is recovering. The black strikes will disappear soon.

Regards,

Geert Coppens

[GA Secretary]

Thank you one and all for your advises. I suspected stress is the culprit and i'm glad the general consensus confirmed it. I was worried she might have caught something bad but glad to know it's stress brought upon and an aftermath of salt treatment .

I'll keep you guys updated.

[GA Secretary]

It has been a week, and nearly all the black markings are gone.



Compare below; a week ago.

[Frankie]

wah, what u do, the scales so coarse now..