Baby Ranchu surprise

[terryl]

I few weeks ago, I put the three ranchu I got from Gary last summer in a small pond to help control the dephnia population. After a few days, I put them back into their own pond. To my surprise, I found quite a few baby ranchu in the dephnia pond a week later. Since they have unlimited supply of dephnia, they grew very fast in the first two weeks, until the outside temp dropped to 40-50 degree this week. I just moved them in door and counted 80+ baby ranchu.

I tryed to breed Gary's ranchu before with no luck. I have already give up for this season. So, it is joy to see the baby swimming around. They are still eatting dephnia from my pond regularly.

Terry

[HNLim]

I few weeks ago, I put the three ranchu I got from Gary last summer in a small pond to help control the dephnia population. After a few days, I put them back into their own pond. To my surprise, I found quite a few baby ranchu in the dephnia pond a week later. Since they have unlimited supply of dephnia, they grew very fast in the first two weeks, until the outside temp dropped to 40-50 degree this week. I just moved them in door and counted 80+ baby ranchu.

I tryed to breed Gary's ranchu before with no luck. I have already give up for this season. So, it is joy to see the baby swimming around. They are still eatting dephnia from my pond regularly.

Terry
What a pleasant surprise!

[Virginia ranchu]

Hi Terry,

I am curious to know how you keep a constant daphnia population in your pond. Is this pond filtered? Are there other fish in there. It sounds like a great way to raise baby fish.

Rob

[bigbettadan]

I got some that way last fall in my 1000 gal ranchu pond. I was doing cleaning for winter and found BBRs............ Now I make sure I put fish in there that are compatible, even though they are my backup fish.

Dan

[terryl]

A small pond, fish poop, a lot of sunlight, plus a small delphnia starting culture are what it tool for me to create unlimited supply of delphnia throughout the growing season. No filter and no air pump. All the delphnia will die in the winter (in Minnesota), but their eggs will hatch in early spring. As long as you don't cleanout all the water from the pond, they will come back year after year.

I read from a old Chinese goldfish culture book that in the old day, the gold fish farmers in China first put chicken dropping in their ponds in the spring, then they filled them with water. They waited until the delphnia population explod before they put in gold fish frys. I guest I may try this way next year.

Terry

[marlin08]

how many gallons is the pond?

[devins23]

Congrats on ur babies! That's really great news. R u continuing their daphnia diet indoor?

[terryl]

The small one is about 300 gallons. The big one is about 1000 gallons. I think it is more economical to use baby brain strimps in the winter than setup a system for delphnia. It will take one large tank or two smaller tanks to raise enough delphnia for continuous consumption. Tanks are for fish, not for delphina.

Terry