album update...Tsuguru Nishiki...????

[harzan]

Does my cross of Celestial X Calico Ranchu resemble Sabine's Tsuguru Nishiki / Shukin?

Let me know what you think Sabine....now about 4 inches.

Thanks,

Harris

[Sabine]

Some of them do, indeed. But yours have colour :) ! They look great.
How old are they? You'll get celestials in the F2?
My little tsugarus, and the parents, are still just grey. Some adults have small red patches that don't grow in size though. I hope to cross my sakura ranchu with one of the tsugarus to get some calicos like yours.

[harzan]

Most were from January and some from March. I really do not care to get the eyes so I will try to cross again to the Shukin I got from Japan. If I get the eyes back, I wonder if I will get Celestial eyes or regular Demekin eyes?

[harzan]

I crossed my Shukin to calico ranchu. Most of the offspring were short or medium tailed fish. The long tails were mostly metallic....about 18 out of 100 and just a few calicoes. I had a some calicoes with medium tails, but were mostly short with long body fish.

I was also looking at my small shukin fry (today was a a big clean up day) that are about an inch and a few to 1.5 inches. Almost all were longtailed fish. Do you Tsugurus' tails show long (body = tail length +/-) at this size too?

I am tempted to get rid of the medium tailed calico ranchu X shukin that are 2 inches or so.

What do you think?

[Sabine]

I would not cull all the medium long tails - if you have enough room. Long tail x long tail results in even longertailed offspring which you may not want. I would definitely keep some of those nice calico ones even if they don't have the long tails.
My tsugarus are outdoors now in a tub and it's hard to judge, but their tails are still shorter than their bodies. They will grow in length though as the fish get older. One of the parents has a tail hardly longer than a ranchu's - hope he is not the father of them all!
The tail length at this point in time is also influenced by crowding conditions, not just genetics.

[harzan]

Sunday has been a very busy clean up day again. I looked at another group of young ones to cull out...about 300.

I thought they were Ranchu calicoes with a few long tails in there...

I was shocked to pull out 30% or over 100 long tails. obout 60% metallic. Calicoes are mostly orange and black though. Backs were all pretty good, I must have culled once before for the spikes. One inch - 1.5 inches tail included. All these fish were crammed in a long 30 gallon tank...old style (4 feet long). I had a lot of medium tails in here too. If I give the medium tails more space, do the tails get longer later?

I am curious as to why one would not want the long tails...do the tails get too long? tails that cannot be held up?

The other group I mentioned earlier had only a few calicoes. I guess it really is crap shoot.

[Sabine]

I am curious as to why one would not want the long tails...do the tails get too long? tails that cannot be held up?

Yes.


If I give the medium tails more space, do the tails get longer later?
We noticed that when a group of young, well fed fantails with strong bodies and stout tails was divided and half of them went to a store, that the group of fish in the store after a few weeks had much longer tails than the siblings who stayed in our care, and had the benefit of getting lots of food. The well fed fish grew long and strong tails only in their second year, but the fish in the store grew long thin tails on slim bodies within a few weeks. It was hard to believe that the fish from those two groups were siblings.

[harzan]

Thanks Sabine,

I have them separated and have not been taking as great care of them. They go to a school fair in a week and half. I will check again before they go. Water is really grean an less food.

[harzan]

I see you are here, go look at your messages...I just sent you one.