For the last couple of days the UK and my ranchu have enjoyed some of the warmest weather of the year. Temperatures during the day have been close to 30 degrees C. Whilst i've been around to shade the pond, and open doors and windows, this has still caused the pond temperature to rise beyond my control. Sometimes as much as 3 degrees C. With the ponds being as shallow as they are i simply see no way that temperatures can be kept more stable during the height of summer.
The ranchu remain fairly lazy, in terms of spawning behavior, although i have witnessed some chasing during the night as temperatures cool. It made me realize a flaw in my methods. By following advice to avoid temperature swings in a short period of time, the pond thermostat was often increased after a warm spring day, to prevent a full drop during the night. Inadvertently this has meant the pond has never really cooled, or spent any length of time at cooler, spring like temps and has simply increased to a summer like temperature. I suspect i have created conditions more commonly encountered in places like Singapore and Thailand where ranchu enthusiasts regularly have to cool their ponds to induce spawning behavior!
I am hopeful that i may be able to still sneak a spawning in this year, to give me something to see the year out and experiment with. I am already getting excited about the 2014 season, which i am hopeful will be much more productive as my group become Oya.
Todays image is of a ranchu taken on a new phone with a photo editing app used to jazz it up a little. Hope you like! I'm also expecting to start constructing my new ranchu ponds this week so more photos and details on those will follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment