Monitoring Ranchu Development

As April passes, the UK continues to enjoy the long awaited spring sunshine, with temperatures around 20 degrees C for the last few days. My ranchu have now also reached the ripe old age of 1 year. Having acquired the ranchu when they were around 6 months, i recently took some photos of them all to compare growth rates and development. Even with the treatments, a long winter and reduced feeding i am very happy with how the ranchu are developing (which gives me some faith in my methods!)

I intend to do the same again in another 6-12 months. I see this as a crucial part of understanding the development potential of my stock. For example, within the last 2 months, the funtan development on one particular ranchu has been tremendous, more so than on other fish in the same conditions. This fact will be considered when selecting fry from this seed, to avoid immediately disgarding ranchu with weaker funtan development that may develop in its first year.

Still no eggs, although the ranchu appear to be getting more frisky. Soft bellies, Strongly protruding anal vents, bright breeding tubercles and milt all seen clearly when handling the fish.