Goldfish- Ranchu & Pearlscale

This goldfish wont the 1st prize under the Ranchu category. Nice face!

They are many varieties of goldfishes. It can considered the most wide variety in the ornamental fishes with different cross breeding. Goldfish can breed with any goldfish making them coming in different sizes, characteristics and colours. Talk about "rojak" (mixed fruits) The types of golfishes are namely the ones below:
1. Single tail with dorsal fin

• Common goldfish
• Comet goldfish
• Shubunkin

2. Double tail with dorsal fin

• Fantail
• Ryukin
• Pearlscale
• Veiltail
• Telescope Eye
• Oranda

3. Double tail without dorsal fin

• Lionhead
• Ranchu
• Bubble Eye
• Celestial

The pictures are on ranchus and pearscale. Ranchu is basically a goldfish without dorsal fin. It is sometimes confused with lionhead. Ranchu can be recognized by the 45 degree slant from the body till tail. Pearlscale on the other hands are recognized by their scales sticking out of the body and normally they are oval or round in shape.
As one of my "sifu" (master) told me the pearlscale is considered one of the most sensitive fish in the all of the goldfishes. They are hard to keep and needs special attentions compared to other fishes. Therefore it is best to keep pearlscale alone and not mixed with other variety of fishes.
Some tips of rearing pearscales:

Ranchu drinking water from the surface

1. Keep the water level low: max 5 inch of water. This is because of water pressure. Even in farms the water is the most at 12cm.
2. Do not use power filter may it be canister, Hang on Back (HOB), Hang on Top (HOT). Normal air bubbles is enough or some simple air powered filter. This is meant to condition the shape of the fish. Too much water movement will make the fish oval.
3. Always monitor the pH. The best is around pH7.5. Something lower than 7 might caused the fish to die.
4. Feed sparingly. Do not overfeed or feed food with too much of protein content. Over 40% protein is not recommended. These fishes are prone to swimbladder disease.
5. Change water constantly. With a simple filter or no filter it is best to do partial water changes once in 3-4 days.

These are some of the basics and normally the pearscale will grow to a very beautiful shape. I am still experimenting with some of the goldfish foods on the pearlscale and I hope to give an update soon.

The 1st prize winner for the pearlscale in Aquafair 2006. This is a local breed "ping pong" pearlscale which makes Malaysia famous.

Aquafair 2006- Fluorescent Tetra

The fluorescent tetra finally makes it debut into Malaysia shores. I was quite amaze with this genetic modified fishes beginning of this year. I first saw it in Azoo's website when I was looking into some of their product information. It is not the normal neon tetra (荧光鱼) or cardinal tetra that we see in normal Local Fish Shop (LFS). I first saw it at 88 marine shops last month and it was sold at RM5 per piece and they were imported from Taiwan's Tai Kong Group which have the famous Azoo brand under its umbrella. (FYI, it is selling at NT7 per fish at Taiwan = less than RM1 per fish after conversion). Again I saw it an Aquafair 2006 and they are really beautiful in groups. Everything is fake in the aquarium except the fish.

Just check out how beautiful these tetra are swimming ins school. Just remember the UV lamp and the right pH for these fellas. For more information on these fishes (provided you know Chinese) please visit http://www.azoo.com.tw/azoo_tw/tkfish/index.php

Something for the beginners: A tetra is any of a number of species of small South American freshwater fish belonging to the family Characidae and to its former subfamily Alestiidae ("African tetras"). The characidae are distingushed from other fishes by the presence of a small adipose fin between the dorsal and caudal fins.
Tetras are tropical fishes normally kept in planted tanks because to simulate the natural ecology of this tiny fishes. They are best kept in school and need a slightly acidic environment.

Fishes in Aquafair 2006- Ryukin

Aquafair 2006 (16th-19th November 2006)
KL Convention Center, Malaysia









(Grand Champion/ 1st Prize of goldfish)
12-13 inch Ryukin-won by Feng Shui Fish (FSF)


Aquafair 2006 Malaysia was the first of its kind in Malaysia. It is quite grand for it. It takes up 2 halls in the KL Convention Center with over 120 participants worldwide. There are fish competitions too. Over 200 fishes took part in the competition ranging from Arowana, Goldfish, Bettas till Flowerhorns. Hope will be sharing more of the pictures from the fair and more information on aquaculture in the next post. Thanks to JengJeng for the nice page.

Another nice and rare Ryukin form FSF booth. This fish is not in the competition. I vote this as the best in the fair(top Ryukin). Just look at the tail-wonderful. The calico Ryukin is not so attractive to me. Chinese (China) goldfishes are catching up with the Japaneses one.

Note: Ryukins are one of the most beautiful goldfishes in the family. They are considered one of the most aggressive goldfishes. It is not advisable to keep other goldfishes together with ryukins.