Into 2015 we go - Happy new year!

Its been a long time since my last post, ive had a number of other projects that have taken a lot of my time during 2014, and so regular updates on the ranchu have not been possible.

That said, there wasn't anything too exciting to update on. The most noticable event, besides discovering all my ranchu are male, was filling a pond one evening, only to discover the following morning that it was empty. Closer inspection proved that the electric heaters had slowly created a build up of limescale, and finally melted/cracked the liner. 

The pond in question, was the one which the ranchu overwintered in last year, heaters operating for many weeks last dec-feb. A school boy error, but a lucky escape for the ranchu and myself. Thank god i age the ponds for a day or two, before adding the fish.

The ranchu had a good, healthy summer. All have grown a little more and now entering their 4th year, the ranchu are showing their genetic characteristics much more obviously. 

Headgrowth in particular has been noticable. For a number of reasons, the ranchu were fed saki pellets more frequently this year, i imagine this has had an effect.  

With the fear of dodgy liners in mind, i decided to buy a couple more fibreglass tubs, which will serve a few purposes with fry in future, but which will house the ranchu over this winter. They are smaller, quicker and easier to clean and reassuringly more solid than liner, so late autumn i moved the ranchu to them and started to prepare them for the upcoming winter.

Once again ive created some polycarb lids for them which are working well keeping the temps stable, and weve recently had nights to -4C.

I expect to be posting more once again into 2015, but until then i'd like to wish any readers and hobbyists a Happy New Year, and i hope your winters go well.