Here are some growth comparisons from a few of my fish. I’m really happy with where they are atm in regards to size. They’ve spent the warm months grazing on algae and microorganisms in the pond, I’ve fed them pretty modestly competitive to their growth rate.

I’ve put off talking about this but it’s time I explained my relative silence on this blog.

About two weeks into August I had an incredibly tragic day. I went out to feed the fish in the late afternoon and found that they looks quite stressed and several were listless. I noticed that there was a film on the surface of the water, accompanied by some bubbles that did not look natural in origin.

It did appear that somehow the pond had been cross contaminated with soap or a chemical of some kind. I did test the water, and all parameters were well within normal range for the pond. I had fed them earlier in the day and everyone was active and happy. I can’t say for certain how it happened, and while I initially had some suspicions I really can’t be sure, so I won’t get too into my theories on what may have been the cause. I will say that I don’t believe what happened was malicious, and that it was likely accidental.

I quickly moved the fish to a separate clean tub with aeration, did a complete water change of the pond, rinsed off every plant, and the filter/pump. However several fish were in the process of dying when I came down to check on them, and I was not able to save them.

I lost my big calico male and my calico telepearl, as well as all of my babies, except one. My other telepearl, the one who arrived with damage to her swim bladder is alive but is negatively buoyant and cannot get off the bottom. Although she recovered mostly from her injuries she sustained during shipping, this was most likely the proverbial nail in the coffin for her swim bladder.

Another female was being treated with oral meds after being roughed up during a spawning attempt, is also negatively buoyant, but otherwise are alright. The other four fish recovered well, however these two girls will likely remain “sinkers” for the rest of their lives.

Considering I was just getting back into the hobby this was a huge blow to me emotionally. I’ve kept up with the pond and my fish but I’ve largely been avoiding the hobby otherwise.

But avoiding things doesn’t really fix them. In my many years of fish keeping, both as a hobby and professionally, I’ve made mistakes. Anyone who tells you they haven’t is lying. You just have to get up, and try again, with the knowledge to prevent what happened from recurring.

They’re here! They’re living in a floating basket for now be a slide they are very teeny and the pond has heavy greenwater right now. So I want to be able to monitor them and the amount of food they receive until they grow and big and can go with the big crew. Zhao as always packed them well, and they arrive active and chipper. He even included two extra fish (giving me six total)!

Powerless to resist the chance to buy itty bitty fish. Cannot wait to grow out these telepearls 🥹 better pics when they arrive this week.

r/GolsfishKeeping is just 20 members away from 100! I plan to host a giveaway for the sub at 100!

Honestly really well! She definitely can get tired more easily, or have an off day where she bottom sits, but she gets around very well for the most part. Giving her time to heal in her little apartment and then easing her into the full depth of the pond really set her up for success.

I think in my last video you can see her swimming, and while she isn’t the most coordinated she can really motor when she wants to!

The whole group looking fat and happy during a water change yesterday. The two bottom fish are supposed to be my only males but I haven’t gotten a spawn out of this group, so we’ll see!

Blooooodworm party! Conditioning these guys with tons of food and clean water to get them in top top shape for breeding.

I recently created a subreddit for more serious hobbyists and breeders called r/GoldfishKeeping. This is hopefully to weed out constant sick fish posts lacking information needed to help, and focus on the enjoyable ascents of the hobby while learning and sharing information. Anyone who even has an interest in goldfish are welcome to join! I hope to build a wiki with a lot of information on care, medication/disease diagnosis, and genetics.

@glaxusplaxus - the wen type is linked to the pearlscale gene, so that is why it is very smooth!

@jasperjvalery - it’s very easy honestly. The scale lift. If you look you can see the fish is round but each scale is tight to the body. A fish that has raised scales associated with dropsy have the ends of the scale lifted off the body make a sort of > shape. It’s very distinct and I think it’s hard to miss especially considering these fish live in a stock tank and I only view them from above.

I’ve had an admittedly rough few days. Unrelated to fish entirely but that is how I came to purchase this female calico horyu. I’ve been waiting for another to be posted so as soon as I saw it was a female I knew I had to add her to the pond.

Behold! New fish. They have actually been with me a few weeks now but I forgot to make this post. When I unboxed them I was very confused to see three fish in the bag (when I had ordered two).

I emailed Zhao shortly afterwards and explained that I think he made a mistake. But he insisted the small female calico pearlscale was a gift for my continued support of his work. The freebie girl is so lovely and I’m excited to have a slightly smaller fish to grow out.

The whole gang! In their Waterchange tub!

Here’s a little video I cross posted to my TikTok since I hadn’t spoken about her there yet.

I’ve spent the last week hand feeding her presoaked pellets and primarily frozen foods. She now has a hardy appetite and I’m seeing big improvements from her initial lethargy. The swim bladder issue however is something she will likely struggle with to some extent, for the rest of her life. Based on the video the seller posted on her sale page, she was moving very well, so I believe she suffered an injury to the swim bladder during shipping. She was bagged with a large male fish who was quite active when I unbagged them.

I’ve also spoken with the seller about this, and we’ve come to a resolution. I do think they were packed and shipped with a lot of care. Shipping fish always comes with some inherent risk unfortunately. I do hope she can heal to some extent. She certainly hasn’t given up and is so friendly and sweet. I’d like to see her live a nice long life with me, good quality of life permitting.

Did I pick up another two fish in this weeks posting? Yes, yes I did. The calico male doesn’t have the strongest pearling, but I love his balanced body shape and finnage. He’s going to be a great addition to my breeding stock.

The female is cute and shipping was free for her so I couldn’t resist 😅 I think she’ll look great with the dark pond backdrop, these photos in a white bowl don’t really showcase her well. She’s actually from a previous weeks posting, but with the telepearl in a possibly permanent isolation, I need more females to balance out the m/f ratio.

Calling Artists!

I’m looking for someone to commission who could create a logo for me to use on my socials and to watermark photos with/stickers/etc.

Please DM me in you’re interested!