子日: 學而不思則惘; 思而不學則怠

He who learns but does not think is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.
~ Conficius

Like any field of learning, it is important for the avid goldfish hobbyist to keep improving on knowledge and techniques. The most common sources of information are from the books and the Internet. In many literature, the author’s experience, skill level, cultural background and environmental conditions are very different from the reader's context. Nevertheless, it provides much valuable information for learning and reference. Understanding the principles of why some things are done in certain ways enables us to adapt the techniques suitable for one’s lifestyle and environment as the saying goes:

"Learn all the rules so that you know how to break them properly". Ethical issues aside, it underscores the importance of flexible adaptation in the quest for knowledge.

However, adaption does not mean taking short cuts as many people have failed to understand the importance of hygiene and proper quarantine. There is a universal rule about this hobby that one should not even think of breaking – proper quarantine. Believe me, this is one sin with a long shadow that will definitely catch up with the culprit :)

I have a few batches of fries to keep me very busy now. With the use of live feeds, it is more crucial than ever to observe strict hygiene rules to prevent any epidemic outbreak. One careless act could mean restarting the game all over from square one again!

Video:
27 days old


Picture:
30 days old

Riddles

A calm sea does not make a skilled sailor.

~ An African proverb

My Top View Ranchu breeding has always been fraught with perils. This year, there are poor fertility problems in most spawns. Besides the usual practice of having more males to breed with a female fish, there should be many more environmental factors that affect fertility. All my breeders are raised in the same environment but why are some breeders just sterile or would always produce infertile eggs? It is very strange as I never have such problems with my Pearlscales.

Maybe the environmental conditions during TVR breeding is not conducive for incubating eggs, maybe I should keep the TVR breeders just like I keep the Pearlscales or maybe TVR is just more regal and difficult to breed. Challenges like these are puzzling but very interesting to overcome. Perhaps, this is what keeps the hobby strong with me for many years - there are always bigger and more difficult riddles along the way to crack.

The Black Baby Ranchus (BBRs) have recovered from sickness. Hopefully, they would stay healthy and become decent fishes. However, I am keeping my fingers crossed due to the persistent problems with fertility and spawn size this year. Whatever the outcome, I enjoy the Ranchu breeding experiences very much. Failures are in fact, very important lessons to fine tune and improved on techniques. Anyway, I have never expected a smooth sailing on goldfish breeding.

Pictures:
1) TVR batch #6 - 23 days old
2) Seed female bred by me in 2008.
3) Seed female bred by my Hong Kong friend in 2008, given to me as part of the seed fish exchange programme. Both fishes are not direct siblings but related in bloodline.

一口吃不成胖子﹐ 一步跨不到天邊。

Rome was not built in a day
~ An English idiom

The next focus for my new goldfish variety project is to construct the dragon eyes from the F1s. Since the F1s have recessive alleles for dragon eyes (Ee), I select only those with pearl scale features for inbreeding and linebreeding across different batches to create F2.

The Punnett chart for F2:

Very few (only 25% theoretically) of the F2 exhibits the dragon eyes (ee) features. The normal eyes F2 will not be used for next propagation as there is no way to tell if it is a pure normal eye (EE) or a normal eye that carries a recessive allele for dragon eye (Ee).

From the thousands, there are even fewer of those with both dragon eyes and pearl scale features. In order to get better breeders, I did numerous spawns using breeders from the F1 sublines just to get a few suitable F2 for the next propagation.

The problem of incomplete dominance for pearl scale seems prevalent even in the F2 as not many have good pearl scale properties.

Pictures:
1) F2 - in this batch, only 1 has dragon eyes (circa 2006).

以魚會友 - making friends through the fish hobby

滿招損﹐謙受益。

Complacency invites calamity; Humility reaps its harvest.

~ a Chinese proverb

多年來﹐飼養金魚的嗜好讓我有機會結交了許多不同國籍與不同背景的魚友。近期﹐我又有幸認識了一位北京的魚友黃先生(天山雪)﹐他就是聞名中外:中國蘭壽網的版主。 金魚象征友誼與和平 -蘭壽網恰當的運用網絡科技﹐讓中國國內與世界眾多魚友聚集﹐增進友誼與信息交流 ﹐弘揚金魚文化。

蘭壽網也是我取集最新金魚訊息與繪畫靈感的重要來源之一。繪畫與許多藝術一樣﹐是永無止境的。要增進對金魚的監賞意識與視野﹐唯有多看謙學﹐才會有進步。每當看到中國養殖戶出產的高檔金魚﹐我就從中受益﹐增進見識。

我非常榮幸蘭壽網眾多網友對小作的青睞。中國是金魚的發源地﹐中國魚友的讚揚﹐對我而言更深意義! 在此﹐感謝世界各地的朋友對我的鼓勵與支持, 希望大家也喜歡我的博客。

金魚繪畫發佈網址:

中國蘭壽網超鏈接 1
中國蘭壽網超鏈接 2

五花狂想曲

萬龍金魚會的金魚畫廊

影像:
-中國世奧特輯:"北京歡迎您"。 注:影像開頭的金魚風箏。

圖片:
1) 2006年: 以工筆水彩畫法描繪蝶尾龍金圖。
2) 完成萬龍金魚會贈東海水族公司的蝶尾龍金圖。
3) 2005年: 大關蘭壽會贈宗家石川先生的俯視蘭壽圖。

Through the years in the goldfish hobby, I get to know many friends from different countries and background. Recently, I was very happy to link up with a new friend from Beijing, who owns one of the most popular goldfish forums from China – LANSHOU.NET.

If you are not versed in Chinese, you can make use of GOOGLE’s translation engine to decipher the contents. The translation is not perfect, but it is definitely better than none. Anyway, goldfish hobbyists will be overwhelmed by the many beautiful goldfish pictures even without understanding the text. There are awesome amount of links and information in this forum covering all aspects of the goldfish hobby. The well managed LANSHOU.NET is one fine example of how internet technology is successfully used to foster friendship and global information exchange to promote the spirit of goldfish culture.

LANSHOU.NET is also one of my important resources on the new developments of goldfish varieties and features. Like any craft, the goldfish hobby is a never ending learning process requiring continual efforts to upgrade and improve. The new varieties and features of goldfish produced by China's skillful breeders provide much inspiration and new dimensions to my work.

I am very honoured that my humble artworks have received much popularity in LANSHOU.NET. The positive testaments from the motherland of the goldfish means a lot to me. I would also like to thank my friends from all over the world who had lent me their valuable support and encouragement all these years.

Check out my artwork in the following websites:

LANSHOU.NET link 1
LANSHOU.NET link 2

Calico Ranchu Dream

Vermillion Goldfish Club Art Gallery

Video:
1) One of China's Olympics Games welcome video to the world. Note the goldfish kite at the beginning of the music video

Pictures:
Some of my artworks:
1) Painting of dual dragon eye butterflies
2) 2006: Vermillion Goldfish Club's gift to Tunghoi Aquarium Company
3) 2005: Ōzeki Ranchu Club's gift to Ishikawa san, grandmaster of the TVR hobby