These little guys are 8 days old today. They are broadtail Ryukins. There are about 50-60 viable babies in the tank. They eat like pigs. I am feeding live brine shrimp by the thousands - 6 times a day.

The babies are growing quickly. They are active and kinda cute in a funny little sliver kind of way.

I look forward to when they begin to look a bit more like goldfish!



..

Mommy - red and white

Daddy - calico

Congrats daryl!!! They are cute...

Moi moi moi moi!

daryl, I'm drooling here...I'm drooling.....I'm drooling!

Can you send one here without charging me shipping...pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaassssssseeeeee?

I simply can't wait to see them grow up! My God they're gonna be beautiful!

I truly wish it were possible/practical to share my babies with you..... I do not think they will make it to Oz, though.

I am sorry. I cannot think of a better home.

What beautiful parents! Looking forward to seeing the babies grow!

WOW! The parents are incredible! Where did you get them?

Angela

Wow, exciting! Congrats! They are cute!

They did it!!!You must be thrilled Carol- I'm watching this space!!! Congratulations!

Mom and Dad came from Dandy Orandas...

dandyorandas.com
kfischer@columbus.rr.com

Ken imports from Jackie Chan.

Yes - I AM thrilled - I am eagerly waiting to see what they will look like! I REALLY want to get little miniatures of mom and dad!



Some in there look like they may have "superman tails" - tails that are kinda flat and spread out - like a tosakin tail kind of...... really strange.....

I have not culled any yet.

Super-cute fry! The parents are beautiful fishies, so I'm sure the fry will be stunning when they grow. Good luck with them. Congratulations Carol!

Congrats!! Man, the fish got to it fast huh? The parents are lovely and Im sure you are just so excited right now!

Will you do a detailed week-to-week update daryl? It'll be most enlightening for me and other members. I'm especially interested in the morphological changes & development of the fry

I will try.

The two ryukins were picked up and brought home. I isoed them in the same tank, thinking they were both males. The move and stress were enough to make the ripe female drop eggs. I quickly dropped in as much matting as I had. I then had no choice but to move the parents from their bigger iso tank to a smaller one.

I then split them up the tank was really too small for two such large fish, and I did not want him picking at her. She only had a few hundred eggs and I was not going to push matters. (I do not feel that I was responsible for this breeding - I did not prep the fish - they came that way....)

The eggs were kept in a 25 gallon tank with a seasoned sponge filter. The water was treated with Acriflavine ( I cannot get Methlene Blue!!!!). Some fungused eggs were removed on day2.

The tank was kept at an even 70F - being long finned fancies, I upped the temp from the usual 69. I could not easily hit 71F and do not trust a heater to do the job as perfectly as I required. I heated the tank with a 60 watt light bulb that was under the tank base - no light - just rising heat.

At 4 days - almost to the hour, the babies hatched. After remaining stationary for approximately 30-36 hours, they were up and hunting. I fed live baby brine shrimp, but quickly ran out. I then fed frozen baby brine shrimp until I got my shrimp hatcheries up and running more efficiantly. I bought decapsulated shrimp eggs - grade A - they hatch out well with no shells to constipate/kill the fry.

The babies are still kept at 70F. It is difficult to raise the temp in any way - I do not trust my smaller heaters in such a little amount of water. It is the dead of cooooold winter right now - Negative 7F last night - and the house temps (64F) just do not allow for very warm water at this time. I have the water at 8 inches deep. I syphon the waste out daily (about 1 gallon) and replace about 1.5 gallons back. I am slowly adding more depth tothe water. I am still filtering with just an airbubbler in a sponge filter and the water is still staying in good parameters.

I am feeding baby brine shrimp approximately 6 times a day. They always have something swimming in the wtaer to eat. The babies have doubled in length and size in 8 days.

I have a few with obvious bent backs, and a couple with strange looking double tails. But they are really too tiny to determine exactly what may be "off" so I will wait.

I read that long finned, deep bodied fish need live food to grow the body depth necessary to carry the heavy tails properly. So I am intending to stick to live food for quite a while on these little guys. I have to get past the time when my hubby comes home and finds little pop bottles of shrimp bubbling on the kitchen counters or..... microworms brewing in a box! (ewwwwh!)..... Perhaps the frozen foods will be more acceptable to him. We will see....

I will keep you all posted.

I never forget the odour of microworms......somehow as time goes by, I find it almost pleasingly fragrant

Oh, they are going to be gorgeous! Congrats Daryl, may this be one of many more to come!

wow!! congrats!!!
looks like our broods decided to breed at the same time! ours are just a day younger than yours, and are progressing at the same rate!

maybe we should set up play dates for the babies one day!

Wow this is so exciting. I hope you have some beauties like their parents.

Woo Hoo, Congrats daryl!! They're going to turn out beautiful, and I'm only 100 miles away... LOL

Some of them are appearing to be "red".....

Cool fry daryl and what beautiful parents.I'm enjoying reading about your cute little fry.

congratulations! it'll be really interesting to see how the fry progress. can't wait to see the coloring!

Oh dear Lord! I hope I'm not too late! Do you plan on selling any of the fry? I live in Georgia...way out in the middle of nowhere, and the nearest pet store... I saw this post and saw the parents...they're gorgeous! I couldn't remember my password to my other name, so I registered with my other e-mail. Please PM me if you plan on selling any of the fry!

I am glad you are soooo interested - it is great to have interest in fine goldfish. I am afraid that they are a LOOOOOOONG way from being ready to be sent to a new home. They are still not much more than little sticks with tails, eyes, big round bellies, and a bit of red flashing on the sides....

When they are larger and I know exactly how many and what I have, they will, indeed, need to find homes. At that time, I will try to contact people. You might consider coming up to the Chicago area in August for the Nationals.... I suspect any fry of any worth I have will be at that show at that time.....

Oh goodness, thanks! Are you talking about the GFSA show? I've never been to one myself. What are they like?

Wow Carol! Those parents are absolutely stunning - and i'm sure that with your expert care, the offspring will turn out just beautiful! I love reading about their development. Please keep us updated. It's so exciting!

Yes - the goldfish/koi show is a load of fun. There will be dealers with fancy fish from around the world, dealers with all sorts of equipment and other goldfish/koi related products, vats and vats and vats of koi to see and tank upon tank of fancy goldfish for you to oogle. There are usually some marvelous seminars - last time, "Judging" was led by some leaders in the goldfish world from England - we got to try our hand at judging tanks of fish, and our opinons were all discussed. I learned a lot. Hanson Mann - a very renowned author on the history of goldfish gave a lecture. There were others too.

A show is a really fun thing to attend. You get to meet and talk with people from all over. They all have different ideas and it can teach a lot.

I particularly like seeing all the various fish - the different types that various people find important. They are sooo varied and each and every one is prettier than the next!

Come to the show. You will not regret it.

Very preatty fry and wonderful looking parents! Congrats and good luck with them.

I do so hope that I can come! If it's not going to happen for me to come, is shipping fish still a possibility for you?
I'm a nursing student...clinicals, that's all I'm going to say



PS: Why can't I use PM's?

Hi Carol,the fry look great !!! Any new babies or new pics?You know how they grow so fast!

I tried to take pics today - but could not get any focus on the camera....

The larger ones are starting to show their dorsal fins - nice and high.....

They are growing tremendously. The largest are about 3/4 inch long - the smallest is about 1/4 inch. The majority are 1/2 inch.


I have to read more on how to use this new camera and will try again tomorrow....

Daryl, high dorsal fins?! That is exciting! I wish I had some babies to watch grow up, till then I'll live vicariously through you and erin.

Maceo! What part of Ga do you live in? I live in Southeast GA.

Moidixmoisfan, Maceo lives north of Atlanta somewhere, and I am a Georgian too - in the Tifton area, about 40 minutes north of Valdosta. So, I guess when the time comes for the Chicago show, there will be a little convoy of vehicles driving up I-75 and fetch some or Daryl's babies...

Will there be a posting about this show in Chicago when it gets closer? I'm only a couple hours north and would like to attend (with fishy bags and cooler of course! )!

Wow, it's refreshing to know that there's more of us in Georgia! I live right in between Statesboro and Savannah! I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to the show since nursing school is kind of erratic, but you could snatch some for me!

=OT=
PS: Can ya'll believe the news about Anna Nicole!?

congrats on the babies Carol! mum and dad are absolutely gorgeous too! will you be keeping some for yourself?

I am hoping to get a good female from the cross - a calico would be nice, but I have no idea of the genetic structure of "mom" so that will be a suprise. A nice red male would be a gift.

The fry at 14 days of age:

They have visible dorsal fins, and double tails. Some are 3/4 inch long, the majority are about 1/2 inch long. There is one tiny one that is only about 1/4 inch long. Some have "white" intheir tails and some have a bit of white/red on their heads and tails....

There are about 60ish of them....

Wow are they growing fast! And no wonder--their bellies are so round already!!

Cute fish. It'll be fun to watch them grow!

This is really interesting... Your mom and daddy are just Gorgeous... this type of gf I like very much.. with the pointy little snouts. Wishing you good health for them!
Cat

There are two spots here on the board where you can find shows and such. One is in the "calendar" link, in the top right corner of the main forum page, and in the "Board news" area is also a section where shows will be announced. Once its within the 3-month range of the show date, I'll post the details.

Wow those are gonna be some beautiful fish!!! Love them!

Okay Carol,UPDATE needed!!!!
With the gazillion live shrimp that your crew are eating daily,I imagine that they must be growing like weeds.

Yeah - well they are quickly getting past my ability to feed them live brine shrimp, and if I use frozen, I will use up my entire food budget for myself! (no food for me!!!!) I hatch out about 1 teaspoon of shrimp eggs every day - starting a new culture each day in alternate hatching cones. They eat them all in one day - with supplements of frozen at 2 feedings....

I have tried frozen daphnia - they pick at it. I tried FirstBites but they let it sit on the bottom and do not even pick at it. At least with the shrimp every last piece is picked from the bottom and off the sponge. They do not like the other stuff much. They are spoiled rotten, I fear.

I had some microworms going, but that was one of the first things that went out the door when my hubby got home. He is really sensitive to things - cannot take out the garbage without gagging...etc. So a culture of stinky microworms was not possible. He tolerates the fish because he thinks they are pretty, but mostly because he loves me. They are "messy" and "stinky". He would prefer a home to be a sterile environment. I like plants, fish, cats and just about any form of wildlife I can pick up and bring home.....

I have culled a few - ones that had slightly bent backs, one with a strange "butterfly" tail that went straight out like a tosakin's tail. Most of the rest seem to be pretty homogeneous! I have about 40 good looking little swimmers in a 25 gallon tank at this time. They are all pretty uniform in size - all about 3/4 inch long with big fat bellies and substantial tails and dorsal fins. Some have white on their tails and a few reddish scales, but the most are just gray.

I will see if I can get a camera in there again today.

So - how does one convince spoiled little babies to eat daphnia or FirstBites or sieved ProGold/Spirilina?????

You have yourself a problem there Carol!!! If I was use to live foods that many times a day,I wouldn't want that other crap either.
I want to say one thing though here,It's really hard working with a dozen or so babies,because if there are any flawed ones,it seems so major.I saw a couple kind of swim odd,and it's noticeable on one that he's kinked,but he continues to live and grow. I haven't been able to cull him yet. He's lived through too much.
I lost a few bigger much healthier fish when I first started during water changes,and these couple of runts just keep making it,and they've even been sucked up a few times when water changing.

I remember feeding my baby Bettas microworms.They loved them!!!

Yeah, those microworm cultures sure stink up a storm - BUT they are so good for the fish! Is there a place in the house where your hubby doesn't go all that much, and wouldn't notice a tiny little container of microworms? Lets see, maybe the laundry room? Leave a box of detergent open, and let that take away the smell...

I knew it would be tricky to get them used to frozen food if they are on live foods all the time - thats why I combine frozen with live on feedings. I think the "hunting" gene kicks in with the fry when they see those little things wiggle, and they try to get them. No wiggling with frozen foods, so its less interesting.
All I can suggest is to keep trying with the frozen foods. Maybe their first meal in the morning, make that frozen, so they are the hungriest after a long night without food, and care less if its frozen or not?

Is it possible for you to send your fry to me in southern california i'd pay whatever cost cuz I still have room for prabably 8-10 more goldfish in my tank?

Need Update!!

The various spawnings of fry are growing well. I have a smattering of nice looking ryukins babies - about 1.5 inches big or so. The green ones have not decolored yet. There are about 3 calicos that are fairly nice. I intend to take the better ones to show this AUgust and get a judge's opinion on them.

I have a number of rather nice Lionhead fry - about 1.5 inches big, too. They are white, red/white, red and some blue ones and some green ones, still. No wens, yet. I hope to take an assortment of the best of them to show, also.

I have about 30 Phoenix fry - about 1.5-2 inches. One or two have nice backs/tails - the rest are just OK. I do not know if any will be blue or what - they are all still silvery/green still.....

I have about 300 Ryukin fry that are 1/2 to 3/4 inch big - still developing....

I have them in two 40 gallon tanks, two 30 gallon tanks, a 25 gallontank, two twenty gallon tanks and 5 10 gallon tanks. They eat like crazy every day and are, mostly, growing like weeds. After the show, I would like to give away the majority of them - or sell them to the fish store.

I do not have pictures - many are in green water..... My hubby has the camera in OshGosh for the big fly-in this next week - so I have no camera, either.....

Sorry. I will take pics when I can.