Anton

Looking good, hope it's going well with your breeding programe still? My long finned spent the whole warm season till now outdoors and they have grown into monsters. I would say at least 4.5", very strong deep bodies. They eat and eat even now in the cool season they're incredibly active even when nights have dipped into 55%C. They had loads of daphnia and fry this warm season. I was lowering the ponds after heavy rain and some youngsters came shooting out the outlet by mistake. Little minis of the adults with very stout bodies and decent tails, vey high dorsal fins for their size LOL. I will select Spring next year for some breeders to use with the neons, meantime I put in a very good solid red spangled neon male, not sure if he's doing his job yet. It's a bit of a random way to do things but I couldn't resist as he was such quality size and colour wise. I will use him also in Spring for more controlled pairing. He is the one I see most of in the long finned pond because of his colour the rest are a manic ripple of water most of the time. I love the gold high metalic females a lot. There is meant to be a yellow strain of Rosies but I don't see often, they have the red tipped dorsal but otherwise "leucisistic" not sure if that applies to fish, males slightly darker yellow. Hope you and your fish have a very happy holiday season meantime. A

Yah they should sell this kind of thing in bulk, would be a lot cheaper. Always tiny little pots that last a few days. Tweeny pkts in this case 🙄

Aaah, I never measured but about somewhere between two and a half to three inches including tail I think. I will look out for long tailed Snowies. I'm so unfamiliar with white clouds, I've probably seen loads but not recognised them. They should do well here as they come from the hill streams in Southern China. Could make a nice addition to my community pots outdoors. Are they good top view or do they dissapear....so many fish tend to dissapear. It's to be expected as they don't wanna be eaten LOL. I've been using danios, a very specific mutation of the glow light jobs. Yellow like reef fish. They come from batches of the pale green finned green/yellow ones. Most of the glow-light danios look very artificial but these selected out of the batches look fantasic. You only get one or two in a consignment of hundreds if you're lucky. The guy in the shop keeps them for me. It's a brilliant all yellow, no green, even the fins & head all yellow. Bit like a platinum betta in look. Having some problems keeping these Rosies indoors, maybe too warm. I didn't sex and seperated them so they're making a bit of a mess spawing every morning. One knocked itself out, stone cold, only recovering after ten minutes. Problem is males and females look a lot alike in this line at least, the males are just darker red with blacker fin tips. All are fat as a carp so that doesn't help much. Wonder if Vibra Bites for small fish (Hikari) have hormones in em. I bought a few days ago and they really, really like them but their bahaviour has become a bit hectic.

Good idea. I've never kept white clouds. They're meant to be nice and easy, maybe I will try in the spring. Are long tailed white clouds rare? This is one of the long tail Rosies I bought, I assume female because she is olive gold on the back. This one hasn't got the longest tail in the batch but I like it. If I could draw a line from tail tip tp tail tip and fill it in I would be very pleased with the lengh as is. It will grow much longer as she gets older anyway. I think body wise they're good the peduncle is nice and sturdy too.

Yah IMO to keep the line vigorous you need outcrosses. So many guppies for example have become so weak and difficult to keep because of "strict" line breeding. A couple of outcross lines fixes that problem occuring. Guppies were one of the easiest fish to keep. Not so much anymore sadly. I bought a few lines of very nice looking guppies but all failed to thrive, while feral populations live in ditches here just fine.

Definately. Send him to me otherwise lol. Put him with the short tailed goldie females. Net a few babies repeat then backcross. How do you maintain vigour, is the Hawaii one the outcross?

https://www.fishmanshop.com/en/product02en/1884-hagen-nutrafin-african-cichlid-conditioner-250ml-a7970.html Overseas shipping is just three dollars more. https://www.petsandponds.com/en/aquarium-supplies/c6653/c235310/p16523756.html From Canada Probably best to get the large size. K-Maart has it but I can't access. Its very widly available surprised it wouldn't be in America.

It's made in Canada by Hagen, you should be able to get on line. I get from my local Pet fish market, most accesory shops sell it there. You could try your local aquarium shop too.

On the piggy front, one of my tubs I left mixed sexed rosies in there, just forgot I had. They were spawning and breeding like crazy, dense with guppy grass. They just stopped coming up for food entirely, it became a self sustaining tub. All they were interested in doing was hunting their own off-spring and making more. Utterly insane. Even if I put food in they would ignore it entirely. That tub is still going strong along the same principle. Almost unbelievable. Only thing they will eat is live daphnia when i could be arsed to give them anything anymore. Always a few fry make it to adult hood too.....so really a completely self sufficient happening. I guess they eat guppy grass too. They look plump and healthy LOL.......

Aiyeeeee yah again ....this little fish is text book body shape. its just such a lovely flash of my past, she looks just like my very first pearscale. The Malaysian mostly red and white compressed ones with wide shoulders and tiny tails you find mostly today are not nice, nor the hooded ones. This is a balanced fish, everything in the right place! I just know it wiggles perfectly, swimming style and ability is so important. Thats the end of Hi-jacking this thread already. Thats to say i forgot i also bred Nankins, another fantastic long lived healthy golfish. I went to a few Nakin shows in Japan and was completely hooked. The metalic sheen and deep red on those top view fish is utterly irressistable. ......top view ryukin are aslo hot these days i must say..... I just must not get into goldfish again LOL.

I don't do much golfish these days. I still have hundreds and hundreds of em in a very big pond, though. They breed each year and produce tons of fry. These are the ancestors of my Jikin , Bristol and London Shubunkins which I bred here in a more controlled manner before. I used to set out the odd breeding Jikin in the pond to improve red colouration as they have a very nice red and this produces very nice common goldfish, or rather beutifull commons. Dark red and white, lovely shape, body depth and not snouty like more common goldfish. jikin can get rather large kept in big ponds, as big as a common in fact, nothing like the little ones in Japan. I also added some London Shubunkins for calico etc this is still the full extent of my involvment besides feeding. If i see a good fish I buy it and release with improvement in mind. They're super dark red selfs or red and white, big as trout with a line of calio running through them. I even put in a short tailed Tamasaba female, she could fit in my two cupped hands, she had that lovely dark red net pattern, each scale red with white inbetween. This threw up some very nice stocky commons last year, still wating for the net pattern, though. Might be this Spring not sure about the gentics of this. Before I bred pearls, the classic old old Shanghai calico butterfly ones which i only see very rarely these days, very rarely. But think they're still available mainland China (see pic) some appear to be getting to the USA. This one is excellent but should have vibrant violet blue, but really excellent fish, delicate, lovely body wise of the type I bred...perfect tail......I hope they're still around they're absolutely charming goldfish and make stunning top view pot fish, (lovely kingfisher blue should be in there to make this one 100%) flirty, very hardy endearing fish, normal pointed little mouse heads, very active. And I bred celestials, chocolate (its a sort of reddish brown), chococlate and white and a very nice metalic red and white line . I loved my celestials. I went for lovely cobby short tails and deep bodies. They weren't in the slightest bit handicapped because of the eye position, seemed to have perfect vision, also very active busy free swiming fish. Thats my goldfish breeding history........this fish makes me want to go on the pearscale journey again.....not enough time in a single life to breed all the fish you want to or even again hey! I lost this line living in the Netherlands after countless trips to China finding breeding material, aieeeeee yah!!!! Brings back memories and a half.

Oh wow that's exciting, would love to see them develop. Are these sorted yet? How soon can you sort for desirability? I used to get eye pains sorting baby Bristoll shubunkins, but you get used to reconising what you're looking for, very quickly. Jikin are the easiest, just two twin common tails set fan shape, usualy the ones swimming like a mosquite larva lol. Are the tails all similarily forked at this age or can you see the ones with "flag" shape already? The fry are not as relaxed as goldfish fry that's for sure, so it must be quite a challenge.

Everything Cory says is good. I on the other hand and this requires absolute dedication and dicipline used the ancient Chinese way of of keeping these fish. This entails water, a large wide top view bowl, shading, fish and a whole lot of work. Honestly the work is actualy not too much. I bred and kept two very nice lines of pearlscale and celestials in this manner. This was all indoors, I had decorative huge wide pots everywhere. What i learnt from doing this enables me to do the same with loads of other fish like Platies, Rosy barbs, guppies etc. Treat them like giant rice-fish and you will succeed. My stud males I kept alone each in their own half barrel size pots. Never more than three or so fish per pot otherwise. Only medication I ever had was salt. This might sound like black magic these days but It's all about recycling water. Every day I would lift each fish out of their home in a bowl appropriate for their size set it aside, they hardly knew they had been air-lifted. Then swirl the water around in the big round pots like a whirlpool. This causes all the fecal matter and tiny particles to gravitate into a neat little pile in the middle of each pot. You swirl strongly and then let it come to almost a complete stop on it's own, but not quite. If it completely stops swirling the little pile of debri explodes and spreads. So you have to vacuum the minute it's all assembled. Swirl clock wise or counter clock wise depending on which hemsiphere you are in the world. This little pile I vacuumed out into a bucket. You do the same in the bucket, all the matter settles in the bucket which takes a few muninutes or so then I pour that same water back into the fish pot just discarding the very bottom full of poo in the bucket. Gently place the fish back in the water and done for the day. Routine wise this is very simple. Air-lift all the fish out around the house set the swirls in motion, go back to number one and start vacuuming. place the fish back in, then go back to number one when all the rest are done and top up with the same water you took out for each. Mature water is gold, full of the right bacteria so never throw it away in water changes. I never used plants, gravel nothing, the only plants I used were edible like duck weed species (as food) the shade covers were to stop the water getting too green which prevents a good view of the fish and gives the fish a place of safety. Usualy about half covered with bamboo mats, sunlight from windows or outdoors. A lovely soft velvit green carpet forms on the insides of the pots eventualy. I fed live food, pellets and duck weeds, the tiny crunchy pea shaped ones are the best. The pellets produce a nice intact poo which is easier for daily vaccuuming. This is the low tech alternative, the romantic version perhapse, predating electricity. Doing it this way in fact achieves everything Cory achieves ultimately, ticks all his boxes except any heavy water changes which are very rare. When starting a new tub I take a little old water from each mature tub. Thats about the only time I top up about a quarter all round. The rest of the new tub I fill with plain old tap water that I let sit a day or so to let the chlorine evaporate. Also using this to do small top ups when needed rather than water changes. Bright, happy, sparkling active goldfish.

Well done you! You saved and improved a very nice line of Rosy barbs. Unique. Yes I see that blak tip in the photo. Interesting because goldfish sometimes develop that black from ammonia spikes. Comes and goes, however in some lines its permanent, bred into them. Maybe just the same with long tails. Yah and bred out of them in short tails which sometimes don't even have the black dot. I also found the fry take awhile to develop, they seem to stay small for a long time then suddenly turn into sub-adults. Could be they hide so well in the guppy grass as fry. I net them by the net full and put them into an empty tank or the adults eat them readily. They hunt the in packs like sharks......the dark side to the Rosy barb LOL. The long tails can be very shark like with that excited erect huge doral fin and dusk and dawn hunting activity. I see my long tails doing this across the Java ferns in the morning and evening looking for dwarf platy fry. They definately hunt in packs like sharks on a reef, covering all escapes and flushing prey. They leave the adult dwarf platy alone which is handy.

No I don't see black on short tail's fins these days here except for the dot near the tail, they seem to have bred it out, even extra large sizes no black not even tips. None of my short tails develop this either.

Stunning! I saw some very much like this on YouTube! They said they had taken them over from their son who had gone into guppies, could be you....if not would be a good contact for expanding the gene pool. They showed very nice males with this full wide tail. I will try and find the link/vid again. Back to the market again today. Bought some live food and a few (marketed as) "extra red" short tail cherry barbs. These always get better in colour at home when they settle and relax anyway. Bought Bug Bites Spirulina flakes.. always thinking veg veg veg. They better not like it too much as its ridiculously expensive @ 65$HK. Saw these little goldies but I've got enough adult females this colour just for their own sake, the males were a bit off colour for me in that bag with the one gold fish (female, i think at least) but very tempting for just her, the other goldies in the other bag looked a bit sick, redness around the fin areas, too long in the bag already and not mature so they could redden but nice sheen......I've noticed some have pearled scales like the first picture, raised bumps on the scales.....those bumps are shiny, sometimes sold as "pearled Rosy barbs" on the net. Yah they do fine here outside, nothing like 34%F though.....more like the 60-80's F%. We had a "polar vortex" or something for a few days a couple of years ago when it dropped to single figures C but they were fine. I think that it's good you give them seasonal changes, sure it promotes longevity and health in the Cyprininae.

Thanks for all those tips. However my "tanks" concrete tank in this case, are outdoors. This means I have seasons to contend with. Platies follow the temps in feeding activity in that they're one step behind the temp fluctuations in the cool season because the water delay in gaining shedding temps. So I cant keep pouring food in there when there is cold spell, when they're semi dormant to appease the snails. The snails don't seem to go dormant which is why the guppy grass is vanishing. I would be just feeding snails and possibly killing fish who don't have the metabolism to digest anything they ingest when its cold. One thing a platy cant resist is a nibble what ever the season, just wish it was escargot. I'm reminded here about the cane-toads (amongst other imported assassins) formerly of Queensland Australia, but now spread into other territories. Foxes to kill the rabbits. Mosquito fish to kill mosquitoes.......all becoming serious pests themselves. I like Endlers but to eat this many eggs they would have to be very numerous. Gambusia are a nightmare and very easily become a pest species so do guppies and sadly I'm understandably cautious about endlers. They would also just add their load to the system in those numbers. Life was balanced and harmonious before the bladders got in, the odd dead body was eaten by the fish and life went on for years and years. All I did was top up the water in dry spells with crudely filtered mountain stream water, harvest a few platies when I need them as lure fish for shy fish.... There must be a solution besides stripping and allowing to sun dry for a week or three but it hasn't been invented. Wonder if I bit the bullet and put in snail killer.......prolly kill the plants and fish....and need to strip the whole thing anyway.

Hmmmm, Bill we have seven or so wild loach species in our mountain streams, stripey, longish like eels, tiger loach,butterfly all sorts. Wonder, as they are perfectly suited to our water conditions because that's where we get our water, if they wouldn't take. I don't use filters or aeration which could be a problem for loaches. Think the Yoyo loach might be too sensitive.

Too nippy I thought, the tank is a breeding tank for Dwarf platies. Platies are fast but I think this might be trouble. I like Pea puffers always loved them. Would like a set up just for them...

Yah, I get the balance thing. This is the dwarf sunset platy "tank". Outdoors. Platies do eat a lot and breed a lot. There weren't any snails in there before, they came with the guppy-grass from Thaiwan. The water perimeters have always been excellent and the water polished crystal clear, with vey little intervention. The guppy-grass took off as intended and my feeding carried on exactly the same, this was summer the rainy season. The snail population duly exploaded. Cool season I feed less as the fish are less active however the snails then started eating the guppy-grass and are as numerous as ever. I'm peeved off as I like the guppy grass so do the little tubby dwarf platies. I had originaly thought..."little snails that will clean up fish waste, wonderfull" but they ate most of the mulm and beneficial bacteria keeping everything in balance, now they're eating the guppy grass, when I feed less. There's only about 15cm left of the grass and it was a big billowing cumulonimbus of it. I still need to feed the fish, the cool season hasn't been very cool but still I reckon they've only been given about half the ammount in all. Snail erradication 101. I've changed my tune about snails after this, bladders will eat everything. Last thing I want is for them to spread to the other water bodies. After the grass is gone they may die back but never completely but I want guppy-grass. I have fresh guppy grass snailfree in other tanks to replace it with as not all the Thaiwan guppy grass was infected. Might have to just strip the whole thing and start again. Hundreds of fish will need a temp home sigh, it's a big muddy job, shovel and scrub. Im so angry I never quarantined the guppy grass loads I got in.

Could be 🤔 what do assasin snails eat when there aren't any bladders left, are they cannabalistic? That would be good.

So look I wondered, in winter do you give your fish a rest.....how does that work in a fish room. Is it heated? I don't disturb my fish over the cool season at all, which is now (no water changes, no breeding no netting, nothing) and only feeding when they become active which is when the temps are above about 16%C or around 55%F. This year has been ridiculously warm so they've been eating bar a few short days intervals almost continuosly. Think they might live longer with a cool season but I guess in a fish room everything is speeded up so you can get more than just a few generations a year, chop chop? Which makes things a lot easier.

Fantastic! Real treasures. I wonder where the black comes from in the long tails? I like it, the short tailed ones don't have any at any stage....interesting. The thirteen I have now (the number goes up and up. Got to watch I don't overstock the temp tub or optimum growth will be affected before release) have doubled in girth since I've had them. This is a good sign, means they don't have internal parasites or anything going on. A few have scales missing which is why I used a medicated bath as they arrive. This comes from customers 'fishing" too clumsily and aggressively. Males and females mixed up is also a problem, so I'm trying to keep the temps on the lowish side to prevent spawning.

Not sure what year this was posted. 😑Just thought, I see you have goldfish in there. I found Nutrafin African Cichlid Conditioner (Hagen) works wonders for both golfish and Java fern. It has lots of calcium, potassium and some aquarium sodium. They seem to like it sodium and all. I use half strengh reccomended on the bottle. I use the lowest setting on my lights but you could play around with covers/filters for your tube to reduce the brightness somewhat. They don't mind bright (not too bright) but need to be conditioned to it and not all day. A lot of these are not grown under water but in the air under misters, so when you buy try and get one that has been rooted to something already and conditioned to growing under water already at your supplier. Get it out of one their established tanks, pricier but worth it. Just a thought the Nutrafin. Ferns can be fussy with ferts prefering high potassium zero phosphates and low nitrogen, bit like palm trees but much dilluted. If they don't like the fert they burn stunt and deform, melt go into decline, this is true for terrestrialy grown ferns too of course. Calcium ratio to magnesium (ideal in Nutrafin) is essential. Goldfish will easily supply enough of the nitrogen.

Would love a snail eliminator, got one pond infested by mistake and while they're not meant to eat plants being bladders they certainly do, dead fish, fish eggs, anything and everything. The guppy grass suddenly started getting lower and lower in the water, the snails have been eating it from the bottom up, soon there will just be tops then nothing. Chemicals cause a massive die off which is a problem. ideally i want them all to climb out and stay out. A certain number do that, which I can then just dust off the brick tank wall.....now if they all did that i would so happy.......thinking of something like a snail sound wave or predator pheromone that creeps them right out of there?