Single Anal Fin

[Ranchu Rancher]

If you have a ranchu that is a great looking fish other than it has a single anal would you breed it? I haved pulled out my copy of Goldfish Breeding and will start reading on genetics. I have a feeling I would have a lot of single anal fish. I know it is important to start with the best fish possible. So to breed or not to breed that is the question. A lot of you seem to be breeding so please give me your thoughts.

Gregg

[joe]

Most of the U.S. breeders and show fish people would not breed or show such a fish. However many of the asians farms and breeders do breed such fish since they judge their fish from the top rather then side view. I tend to agree with the asian view point and have no problem with single anal fins

[Virginia ranchu]

Hi Gregg,

Do you know if this fish came from an established strain? An established strain of Japanese ranchu rarely throws many single anal fins. If your fish is the rare exception, and you breed to a double-anal finned fish from the same strain or another good Japanese strain, you will probably not see too many single anal fins in the fry, and you can then select for the double anals. The nice thing about breeding fish is that you won't be raising all the fry anyway. I wouldn't be too concerned about any one fish in particular, but rather, your general impression of the spawn as a whole. If most of the fry are showing some defect, I wouldn't keep any of them.

Of course a defect in a puppy is a more serious problem, because we can't cull puppies! With a spawn of 1000 goldfish eggs, you will need to cull for something. The nice thing about ranchu is that they are fairly easy to cull at a young age, so you won't have to raise hundreds to retain your best few.

Cheers,

Rob

[Cincy Ranchu]

If it is a viable female I would keep it as the single anal is variable in offspring and good breeding females are tough to find.

[afnaveils]

Breed this single anal female to double anal males only.

I think Breeders are not always best fish, that's why we talk of seed ranchus. Combine best features of female with best features of the male.

[Sabine]

The ranchu female in my avatar had only a single anal fin, yet all of her offspring (father had double anal fins) hat double anal fins. If there were any singles I would have culled them early on for other reasons.