Aubrey Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 So I have been interested in rice fish since I first heard Cory mention them saying they might be a new trend in the U.S. For the longest time I could only see them on websites with only a few varieties available and they were usually sold out. I did finally get some Daisy's blue rice, but they were not true medaka in the species latipes. Then I got some platinums and could not have been more thrilled. Recently I have seen some "red cap" and am itching to make a setup for them. Further research took me to Amazon.co.jp, and a whole new world of different varieties was opened up along with large amount of envy. Now how do I go about getting them from Japan? And is it worth it for a common hobbyist? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preston John Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 I’ve tried and failed to find anyway short of flying there myself to get them imported in from Japan. I’ve offered koi importers stupid amounts of money to include them in their shipments, but it’s been a no every time. I’m still looking so let us all know if you find a way to get them into the states. I’ve got five strains that are the ones available in the usa. I’ve got them all mixed together. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubrey Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 How many excuses do I need to visit Japan? I too thought of searching for koi importers that might list ricefish, but never contacted any of them. I found one that did list them, but they are always out of stock and nothing new in terms of varieties available in the U.S. I've never purchased any fish from out of the country, but I vaguely understand that you first have to find someone selling it and then a transhipper to import it. So, are you keeping all your strains together in an attempt to breed a new variety? Most of my searches for line breeding and cross breeding ricefish result in scientific studies and research papers instead of mix these two colors and get this color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preston John Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 As I read your reply I thought to myself, How great this forum is going to be, because we can band together to find a solution. Or at the very least, maybe I can send you some fish! Your reply was exactly what I went through. I did mix them all together to try and see if I could get anything close to the ones I like from Japan. I’m only three generations in so far, but I’m seeing some fun looking fish. Maybe @Dean’s Fishroom, @Cory, or @Randy would be able to point us in the right direction. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted October 5, 2020 Administrators Share Posted October 5, 2020 Just now, Preston John said: As I read your reply I thought to myself, How great this forum is going to be, because we can band together to find a solution. Or at the very least, maybe I can send you some fish! Your reply was exactly what I went through. I did mix them all together to try and see if I could get anything close to the ones I like from Japan. I’m only three generations in so far, but I’m seeing some fun looking fish. Maybe @Dean’s Fishroom, @Cory, or @Randy would be able to point us in the right direction. I've been working on it myself. Covid basically slowed everything down. I plan to just go to Japan and bring back eggs on the plane 😛 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean’s Fishroom Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 On 10/4/2020 at 6:43 PM, Preston John said: As I read your reply I thought to myself, How great this forum is going to be, because we can band together to find a solution. Or at the very least, maybe I can send you some fish! Your reply was exactly what I went through. I did mix them all together to try and see if I could get anything close to the ones I like from Japan. I’m only three generations in so far, but I’m seeing some fun looking fish. Maybe @Dean’s Fishroom, @Cory, or @Randy would be able to point us in the right direction. Rice fish are very popular in Japan and they have many fancy and exotic variations of them. But for some reason they are not produced for export or at least not export to the USA. Like many others I've tried to figure a way to bring some of the more interesting ones in. But even though I have an import licence finding a company to export them has evaded me. Their eggs can be mailed similar to how killie eggs are mailed around the world. But I haven't found anyone that will harvest and mail eggs. In my opinion it is going to take someone with good contacts of Japanese breeders to go to Japan and figure a way to get some shipped. Not a easy task and maybe not even possible. I feel eventually we will see some of the more fancy variations, it is just going to take some time and probably deep pockets. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 @Ryo Watanabe? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ed's Aquatics Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 51 minutes ago, Streetwise said: @Ryo Watanabe? I was thinking that too. @Cory could see how he enjoyed that care package, maybe send him a couple pink crypts and a prepaid envelope... and there ya go 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted October 7, 2020 Administrators Share Posted October 7, 2020 3 hours ago, Mr. Ed's Aquatics said: I was thinking that too. @Cory could see how he enjoyed that care package, maybe send him a couple pink crypts and a prepaid envelope... and there ya go 🙂 Lol, we've already been working on it/trying. I think me visiting Japan again, and going to singapore as well with @Ryo Watanabe to show us around and bringing back eggs is the plan.... THen this darn virus happened and put everything on hold I had planned for this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Miller Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 3 hours ago, Cory said: Lol, we've already been working on it/trying. I think me visiting Japan again, and going to singapore as well with @Ryo Watanabe to show us around and bringing back eggs is the plan.... THen this darn virus happened and put everything on hold I had planned for this year. @Ryo Watanabe wouldn’t be able to just send some eggs in the mail like Killifish as @Dean’s Fishroom said? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ed's Aquatics Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 3 hours ago, Lee Miller said: @Ryo Watanabe wouldn’t be able to just send some eggs in the mail like Killifish as @Dean’s Fishroom said? I think we're all assuming that they are easily sourced there and @Ryo Watanabe has a source. Even though I've only seen him keep the same variety we have here. Probably have to have a connection to get the cool, popular strains. Supply and demand means if they have more than enough people there to purchase their supply... there is little incentive to reach new markets. 😞 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted October 8, 2020 Administrators Share Posted October 8, 2020 I got hooked on rice fish when I went to Japan the first time. Then bought all I could here and bred them and in my opinion helped popularize them a bit. Now when I go back, I can spot varieties we don't have. In Japan there were specific rice fish foods, just like guppy foods, different rice fish breeding setups, rice fish only magazines etc. Was quite the craze. This would have been like 4-5 years ago. You can see the rice fish in my videos where I went to Japanese fish stores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ed's Aquatics Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 I don't know if we're calling them gold or orange, but I have the ones you and Dean have that you featured in a couple videos. Kinda like koi, they're fun to watch from above. Been looking for a 50 lowboy to winter / display them in and add other colors. Very cool little fish, I hope the popularity continues growing around here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryo Watanabe Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 Yes, there are so many varieties of ricefish in Japan it’s crazy. I’m Japanese but I’ve only been living in Japan for the past one and a half years so I don’t have a ton of contacts however I am in touch with many of the local fish stores here but not with many ricefish farms/breeders. I do know of a few farms who sell interesting and rare strains of ricefish but they say it’s very difficult to ship the fish/eggs to other countries. “It’s a very complicated and difficult process” is what I’ve been told by a breeder. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryo Watanabe Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 Yup, there’s a massive selection of food just for ricefish here. Probably because it’s the most popular pet fish to keep here in Japan. Here’s a small selection from the pet section at my local home center. The green one in the second picture is a favorite among many medaka keepers as you can watch them pick at the donut shaped, floating pellet. Quite interesting to watch a bunch of them go at it. The gold color packaged food is also quite popular. This one was recommended to me by a ricefish breeder/farmer. He said that this food helps his fish grow well and doesn’t get his water as dirty compared to other foods. 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubrey Posted October 8, 2020 Author Share Posted October 8, 2020 I don't know all the ins and outs of import/export 😉, but it seems like things get rather complicated with islands. Also I found out while doing a little research that Oryzias Latipes is considered endangered in the wild in Japan which I'm sure could make things complicated and difficult, but could not find a clear answer if that has anything to do with being able to ship the aquaria strains overseas. Then there are the trans-shipping fees if you could import. Which I found out can be around $20 per fish on top of the price of the fish, shipping price to the trans-shipper, and then shipping price from the trans-shipper to you. At this point I've decided that it is not worth it economically for a common hobbyist such as myself, that has no intention of breeding for profit, to import any fancy strain from Japan. Although I do think that it could be an economic win for a breeder. I'm going to keep researching while I wait for @Cory to go to Japan, get some eggs, start up his urban fish farm, and then hope he ships fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NordernAquariums Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 Does anyone notice a larger percentage male? I have purchased rice fish from three different individuals and each time it has been extremely male dominant, and in two of the cases they arrived very small before I would think they are sexable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravisCroxall Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 Hi NordernAquariums - I've had a similar experience with ricefish fry. I had 10 shipped from Hawaii to Ohio and once they reached a sexable size, all are male. Disappointed with the ratio, I looked into it a bit. Turns out that starvation during the larval stage can cause genetically female fry to change to male. A period of 5 days is enough to cause the change, so shipping young fry can lead to a male-heavy ratio. Here's a post with more information : Medaka Sex Change. Quote Scientists had already discovered that environmental factors, such as temperature changes in the brackish and fresh waters where medaka fish live, are likely involved in their sex reversal. Tanaka and his team wanted to know if nutrition also played a role. They starved medaka larvae for five days. This was enough time to affect their metabolism without killing them. Three to four months later, the team examined the fish and found that 20% of the genetically female medaka had developed testes and characteristically male fins. The same did not occur in larvae that were not starved. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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