Full moons and frisky ranchu!

Saturday evening the ranchu were moved into a new pond. A male fish (previously mentioned for showing a bit of dominance) began the first chasing ive seen this year soon after, but stopped a little while later.

Sunday we had a really nice, bright day, the pond temperature rose well once again and i prevented it dropping back beneath 20 degrees C this time. Breeding tubercles have become even more obvious on all fish. I've also fed smaller quantities each feeding. As darkness fell, i looked in on the ranchu and all were very active, almost oblivious to my presence. I always think this is a good sign that they have something else more primal on their mind! All ranchu were either chasing or being nudged around, which was promising. Early Monday morning i checked on them but all were as round as they were the night before. *Sigh*

We are forcast to have a couple of weeks of similar warm weather. Rather than continue to raise the base temp, as i did last year, i will now hold it at around 20/21C. We are also due a full moon tonight (i believe), and i know lots of breeders who believe this to be a big factor in encouraging spawning. We shall see....

It is widely acknowledged that the first spawning is often of low quality, with many breeders preferring to disregard it entirely and wait for the next. Whilst i accept this may well be good practice and best use of time, i intend to get some practice with the first spawn. Whilst the overall quality may ultimately be llimited, i have the resources and time, and am keen to practice my pond management and a few grooming ideas on any fry. 

Spring has sprung and the sun is shining

As we enter April, the worst of the winter now looks to be behind us. Just as the pond was increasing in temperature nicely, last week we had a handful of days close to freezing. It seems the lids and heaters finally hit their limit, and the pond simply couldn't be kept at the temperature it had risen to in days previous (somewhere around 19 degrees) during sub zero nights. The pond came down to around 15C but the ranchu took it in their stride and seemed unaffected.

Since then, We have had a number of days with temperatures close to 20 degrees C and temperatures through the night around 10 degrees, which looks set to continue in the coming week.

The pond is sitting around 19C generally, brighter days seem to have more heat behind then now and the pond has warmed up to beyond 21C at times. The ranchu look well and are very active. I hope that mild evenings for the next couple of weeks will allow me to keep the ponds warmer, and may trigger some chasing.

Ive made even more changes to my spawning mops having tried various different materials i think im now settled on the style of the one above. The ranchu have seemed very cautious of anything that wasnt super soft, and havent interacted as confidently with previous mops as i would like. They seem very happy to interact with this one, which must be a good thing.

Frozen nights but warm Ranchu!

I have pushed on with my plans to start warming the ranchu gradually and things are going well. We have had a run of nights with temperatures below freezing recently. The lids and just a single 300w heater in each pond has kept the water above 9 degrees C, which was a surprise and also a great relief.

As the temperature continued to increase and went past 10 degrees C, the ranchu have began to respond to the change. Each fish appearing a little less lethargic and labored when moving.

Within the next 14 days i expect the temperature to be between 12 and15 degrees C. I will then observe the ranchu and expect feeding and water changing routines to begin again soon after. 

This spring,instead of warming the ponds up to summer temperatures in one continuous process,I intend to hold the ranchu ponds heaters around 15-18 degrees C for a while, allowing the spring sunshine (when it comes!) to increase the pond temperatures further at times, more naturally.

Let me know how your winter has been.

An Overdue UK Ranchu Post

It has been many weeks since my last post when i was in the process of building my outdoor ranchu ponds. They are now pretty much complete. As you may expect there have been a number of modifications and improvements already made to them and I still a few more planned. On the whole though, they are performing tremendously and my small group of ranchu are looking well.

Temperatures have been far easier to control, particularly during brighter days when the ponds haven't warmed up like they did in the conservatory. The lids also appear to be doing a reasonable job preventing heat loss with a single 200 watt heater currently all that is required during the night intermittently to keep temperatures stable, even with evening temperatures below 10 degrees C at times, which is promising for the  approaching winter. The ranchu have been kept between 15 and 20 degrees C, are feeding well, active, deeper in colour and looking healthy.

With the winter fast approaching it will very soon be time to start the gradual cool down. I hope to make it a very gradual process this year, and expect to have lowering temperatures well on their way by November. With the extra ponds now available i also intend to separate the sexes over the winter this year.

Ranchu Pond Build Begins. Turning Japanese!

With the glorious weather set to be with us for a little while now, a couple of days ago i set about constructing my new ranchu setup. My plans were to have 3 ponds, which will function primarily as "growing out" ponds. I have seen many examples of concrete ponds used across Japan

I intended to build the ponds out of railway sleepers and then line them. They would be much cheaper than custom made fibreglass ponds, easier to build than blocks and concrete, removable, and still the right dimensions (with ranchu in mind), strong and attractive enough to look at (which was an important factor in getting the nod of approval from the misses!). The only downside being that the water will have to be pumped or syphoned out rather than simply pulling a plug.  However, with a spare pond always available, water changes will become much faster. Move ranchu from pond A to pond B, drain pond A, refill and open a beer.

In the middle of last week the railway sleepers arrived and i set about laying them. I was hoping to get an available depth of around 15 inches in the ponds. The cheapest way of doing this was going to involve laying the sleepers on their thinnest edge, as laying them more traditionally flat was going to require twice as many layers to get the depth i wanted available.

Having laid the first layer, it became obvious to me that a second layer was going to increase the height of the ponds to a point where they may become ugly to look at. Unfortunately this meant that to get somewhere near the depth i still wanted, i would need to dig down. It took the best part of 2 days, in the hottest weather the UK has seen so far this year, but i managed to get an extra 5 or 6 inches added to each pond. 

The ponds are 6 ft long, almost 5 feet wide and will have an available depth around 15 inches which should be plenty for my ranchu grooming. Due to the nature of ranchu ponds, temperature fluctuations are a common problem and so i will be setting about making both shaded and insulated lids to protect from the elements before any ranchu go into them.

Having decided to stick with just one layer for the ranchu ponds, it has meant that i have sleepers left over and so i will be able to crack on with plans for another pond build very soon. I intend to make a larger, deeper pond that will be the home of my seed fish. I intend to insulate it heavily in the hope i can winter the ranchu in it as well. 

The ranchu themselves are well and i'm suprised at how active they are given the temperature. The weather has been very warm for the UK, around 30 degrees C for a few days now, and the pond temperature today has risen to around 26 degrees, even being shaded!