ECR Contest and Review

My betta Neptune in my Halloween ECR contest tank.

I recently participated in the EastCoastRanchu Halloween Giveaway on Instagram where I was one of several runners-up which meant that I won a pet shop grade ranchu however, it was not stated that we would be having to pay shipping costs for a ranchu which according to ECR's owner Cynthia was going to be $41+. Below you'll see the ECR contest rules.

Click Image to Enlarge ECR's Contest Rules

Unfortunately, I didn't agree with that because for one thing I'm not spending that kind of money on a fish I'm not picking out, and secondly I have spent around $50 total (if I remember correctly) on 1 fish I picked out. The other issue now is I can get a pet shop grade ranchu for $8-20 at an LPS less than an hour from me (the same place I got my previous 3 ranchu from). While I was super excited to have won a ranchu from ECR I am now left feeling disappointed. If I totaled up the full value of my entire betta setup (as seen above), it is very easily more money than that of the ranchu's shipping cost. On just the new decorations I spent to decorate this tank for the contest was at least $30.

Furthermore, I had other people on IG reach out to me about the shipping issue (since Cynthia made an issue about my ordeal with her shipping "mechanics" over social media which went as far as to say that we should have read her shipping mechanics on Facebook, and never once were we directed on IG to do as such for the competition). This person also sent me screenshots of their e-mail conversation and apparently if you didn't win a ranchu and you won a Python vacuum than you did not have to pay anything for shipping. Last I checked a gravel vacuum does not fit into an envelope which means it costs something to ship and therefore it seems to people in this contest that it was a better deal to not be a winner or runner-up. So this now becomes a bit confusing because on one hand we were to assume that a fish meant you paid for shipping while a non-fish prize meant you paid for nothing.

On top of everything I get a really rude e-mail response from East Coast Ranchu's owner Cynthia, and now I will no longer be doing or recommending future business there (you can read our email exchange below as to why). I really can't even believe that someone running a business would say that "my name is worth more than your $42" and suggesting that I am "poor" when I have purchased fish through her before. Nor was I ever "ungrateful", I was excited to win (you can tell from my email) just as much as when I was excited and appreciative in my unboxing ranchu video I did about 2 years back. She made a lot of weird rude assumptions about everything that I said, I really just don't even understand this aggressive type of behavior. I could easily say a lot of things right now about this but I'm going to let you decide for yourself what to make of it. All she ever had to say to my response about not wanting the fish was that she respects my decision and leave it at that, or she could have offered me the completely free gravel vacuum instead and offer my fish to someone else. If this was some great pet shop grade fish than why not just sell it like she does normally, or tell me that if I'm willing to spend an extra $8 or so more that she'll let me pick out whatever fish I want (this is a business after all, right?). I don't see how I am really inconveniencing her here (it's one less fish she has to send out after all), and she made this ordeal feel like a scam. This whole situation turned into a nightmare experience (fitting for Halloween).

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There are other fish places online that offer $29.99-$35 for 1 to 2 day shipping of fish, or even free shipping when you spend $175. There are also plenty of other people selling quality fish online (cost is not an issue for me. I work on this blog in my free time between working a full time job and going to college). For me I am currently in fish keeping for the enjoyment of the fish not their show or breeding qualities. I have bred fish before and I know all the work that goes into caring/raising any type of fish, which is basically why I created this blog to begin with. I am here to try and better the fish community, and not to act as if I am above everyone else that is into this hobby as well.

Lionhead Progress (1 Year)

Today I have officially had my goldies for 1 year, to which I feel so blessed to have seen them grow from 4 grams up to 159 grams in weight (and still growing!).

Pocky, Sumo, and Ramen (left to right)

My results show that in a goldfish's first year (12 months) it can gain roughly an average of 134g. Of course results will vary depending on how, what, and when you feed your goldfish, as well as the goldfish's living conditions.

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Another factor to note when raising, culling, and/or breeding goldfish is that generally any imperfections found when the fish is small will more than likely still be an issue as the fish progresses in age and growth. Color roughly changes with age, in proper conditions color seems to intensify with age however, some breeding, breeds, or health related issues can cause the fish to go through a more dramatic change in color (as seen with my goldfish Pocky).

Oddly after 5-6 months any major internal health problem/s seem to become apparent in these fish, such as having swim bladder disease. I was unable to find a cure-all for swim bladder disease and I'd like to hypothesize that this is something that can occur mainly due to poor breeding standards. Some swim bladder problems may be worse than others.

Lionhead Progress (6th Month)

This month I mainly fed the lionhead (or as I have been told they are ranchu not lionhead.. or lionchu, whichever you feel these fish are) Saki-Hikari fancy goldfish (green bag) which has consisted of 3 feedings a day and 1/8 tsp per feeding (which is a lot less than these fish were eating the previous month). I also spent the month researching, designing, doing water changes (which is much easier now with a pond pump), etc to figure out why Pocky and Ramen both appeared to be having sudden swim bladder issues most the month. I figure the issue was due to escalated nitrate levels (which you may have read about correcting nitrate levels in my previous post) because after I did several big water changes the two fish appeared to make a quick recovery within 2-3 days (although some days they still seem to have issues), and the nitrates were really the only thing off when I tested the tank water (why we are often told to neglect our nitrate levels is now beyond me).

Sumo, Ramen, and Pocky (left to right)

My little Sumo currently weighed the most for a second month in a row now at 77g, which is a 10g gain from last month. Ramen weighed in at 72g with a 13g gain from last month allowing him to put on the most weight this month, surpass Pocky in weight, and have the average weight between the three. Pocky whom was the fastest growing of the three just 2 months ago only weighed in at 68g with a tiny 2g gain from last month (what's up with that??).

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The average gain this month was 8g (0.3g daily) which is half of what it was last month, keeping in mind that I did halve their food intake this month. As usual while the food was halved the weight of fish was not divided equally, although I am surprised to see Pocky falling drastically behind. Pocky has had a rough month in terms of swim bladder issues (same for Ramen though), but it could also be he doesn't care for the new Saki-Hikari as much as the others (because both Pocky and Sumo practically weighed the same last month while Ramen was tailing behind).

Based on my findings from this month and last month this shows me how much weight will be gained by my fish as a group, since half the amount of food is also half the amount of weight gained as a whole. I also feel that each fish has better weight gain depending upon their favored pellet food, I don't think it's one type of pellet food that really works for all the same type of fish. Also by halving their food intake Ramen and Pocky both noticeably were having some type of swim bladder/equilibrium issues, is this affected by high nitrate levels only or perhaps is this some type of hunger pain issue?

For next month I am going to go back to feeding the lionhead 1/4tsp of pellets per feeding, and I am going to put them back on a mixed pellet diet. I will also insure my nitrate stay at 40ppm or lower on a weekly basis. Since my fish are getting rather big for my tank setup I do plan to remove the large barnacle decor in the tank ('Eval' the pleco won't be happy about it) and I will probably just add in some fake plants (doing this will give the lionhead more swimming room as this currently takes up around 1/4 the tanks length, and it will increase water volume).

Lionhead Progress (5th Month)

New food for my lionhead showed up recently from Japan which I got from eSeller Momota106 who kindly threw in a sample of Azayaka's Basic Balance (I have been wanting to try that out for some time now), and shipping took 20 days before arriving at my place in the US. If you opt to get the bigger bag of Hikari from them it appears you'd still get the same single sample pack, which is a similar type of pellet to the food purchased (as both of these are for goldfish balance). I was not impressed with the results I got with Hikari Lionhead as I have mentioned previously so, I am hoping to get better results with a different goldfish food by them (I will try almost anything twice).

Azayaka (left) and Saki-Hikari (right)

This past month I made up my own pellet mix to hopefully get the most growth from all of my lionhead (this was based on their past growth rates), and I even started giving them an extra feeding per day (so they got 3 meals a day from 6am to 6pm) although I did not decide to decrease their water temp (so it's still set at 78F).

My Daily Pellet Mix (fed 3x a day, 1/4 tsp pellets per single feeding)

1 Part - Hikari Lionhead pellets (I will switch these out with my new Hikari pellets)

2 Parts - Omega One goldfish pellets

2 Parts - New Life Spectrum therA pellets

Other Foods (given 1-4x a month)

1 Cube - Frozen Mysis Shrimp and/or Bloodworms

2x2 in - Nori/Dried Seaweed

Several Drops (after every water change) - Vitachem

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I have had my lionhead goldfish for 5 months now and as you can see from the above chart it shows their growth rate for every month (approx. 30 days per month). The average gain this month was 18g (0.6g daily) which is double compared to last month. This month Sumo had a huge gain of 21g since last month and weighed in at 67g. Pocky nearly weighed the same as Sumo with a 17g gain and now weighing in at 66g. Ramen is again the smallest this month with a 15g gain, now weighing in at 59g. I did notice Ramen having swim bladder issues this week so I will be making adjustments to the amount of food being fed to my lionhead, and I believe this is why Ramen's weight is a bit lower because he has been working harder to keep his buoyancy. I also feel Pocky may have very early stages of swim bladder issues as well so a slight diet may be in order for these fish.

Sumo, Ramen, and Pocky (left to right)

Sumo

Pocky

Ramen

Hikari Lionhead - Review

I have been using the Hikari Lionhead pellets on my fancy goldfish for around a year now on various goldfish and I just wanted to give a quick review on what I think about this fish food.

Size
These Hikari Lionhead pellets are relatively big as they're around 1mm in size, and one of these pellets equals about 4-6 pellets of 'New Life Spectrum for Goldfish' so, you probably wouldn't want to use these for fry/young goldfish, or small mouthed/throat-ed fish. Also these pellets tend to dissolve pretty quick in water, if left uneaten they will basically expand to about 2-3 times their originally size in the water and thus dirty your water pretty quick overtime.

Smell
I noticed that these pellets have a very strong smell and can easily stink up an indoor aquarium. That being said I'd say these are more ideal to use for outdoor ponds because it can smell up a room in your house through the aquarium water. For myself, I'd only feed this as a small treat once in awhile if kept indoors, or in small quantities with other pellet food daily.

Fecal Matter
These can possibly make your fish have thicker fecal matter, and generally the fecal matter is very dark brown in color when only fed this so, I do worry about constipation becoming an issue. This could perhaps be beneficial for awhile if your fish is perhaps having very stringy looking poop.

Head Growth
I really haven't noticed an increase in head growth and such with this, but based on how my fish look and other fish I've seen that eat this it seems to possibly help develop a higher arched back closest to the head of the fish (although the higher backs may come with age and eating in general more so than with this food).

Taste
Some goldfish may not be overly into this food as one of my ranchu appeared to like it more than the other, and the one that liked it the most had grown to be about 10 grams bigger than the one that didn't. Which could perhaps be useful if you're trying to quickly grow out certain goldfish.

Overall
I did not find my fancy goldfish had gained any real head growth from consuming this product over the course of several months, which was the main reason I bought this to begin with. Feeding this as a daily diet would also not work for myself as the food has too strong of a smell for indoor use in my opinion, and I worry about fish constipation with this product. On a scale of 1 to 5 I might give this a 3 at best.

Ranchu Mishap

For those that follow me on Twitter here you probably read that my two adorable ranchu (Bumblez and Oakki) have since passed away, which is partially why I have had a bit of a hiatus on here lately. There are a few possibilities which I feel may have contributed to the death of my ranchu which I am going to share with you now...

#1 The first issue being that the hardwood floors got refinished downstairs (which is why I have some unknowns as to what happened in my ranchu aquarium while I wasn't home), and although my bedroom upstairs where my fish reside were left with a closed bedroom door the dust from the downstairs floor still managed to seep into my room... hence wood dust getting into the aquarium. Not to mention the fumes throughout the house from the staining process and such may have also been a contributing factor.

#2 The power had apparently gone out at some point during this process... for how long exactly I am uncertain but I believe this may have contributed to problem #3.

#3 Filter failure which may have happened due to the power going out and it's honestly the first time this unit has failed in my tank. For goldfish, having water movement and constant filtration is basically a total must have since goldfish create a lot of waste, but wait... I have an air filter as well, which brings me to issue #4.

#4 Some where along the lines of doing regular tank maintenance (honestly this next part is a total mystery) but some how my air check valve was going in the wrong direction and hence no oxygen was actually going into the tank from the air pump (which explains the lack of bubbles being produced after I cleaned the decor).

#5 It could also be that once all the filtration had failed it caused the water parameters to drastically change, which in itself could have eliminated the ranchu. However I did perform a 50% water change before I left the fish to fend for themselves for 2 days (they did have an auto-feeder so food was not an issue, and there was uneaten food in this gravel-less setup when I did return), but it's a little hard to believe that even with the filter failure the fish didn't survive those short few days (I mean they did survive being shipped to my house in breathable bags for a few days).

So while my ranchu have passed on to the big fish bowl in the sky... my albino bristlenose pleco 'Eval' that also lived in the aquarium with them... had survived. I already knew why it survived and that's because pleco's have an additional set of lungs allowing them to breathe differently than say... ranchu. My betta whom is kept in a smaller tank in my room had also survived but betta's also breathe differently than say... ranchu, as betta's are labyrinth breathers which allows them to breathe out of water for a period of time.

Ranchu Birthday Weigh-In

Looks like its been around 2 months since the ranchu's last weigh-in and this time they have officially turned 1 year old. Last time Oakki weighed in at 51g and he now weighs 64g, a gain of 13g. Bumblez was 42g last time and now weighs 59g, a gain of 17g (Way to go Bumblez!). Although Bumblez put on the most weight he is still 5g behind Oakki.

Oakki (left), and Bumblez (right)

Do you remember my new years resolution for them?

"I think my goal for Bumblez right now is to have him be at least 50g by the end March, as it will mark them turning 1 year (12 months) old. Do you think Bumblez can do it? I bet Oakki will be at least 60g by the end of March, what ya think?"

Guess what... it happened!!

Ranchu Weigh-In

It's been a little over a month since the ranchu's last weigh-in and I have basically halved their food intake, which will continue until March... call it winter fasting if you must. They both put on 4 grams of weight which is practically nothing compared to before so Oakki (black metallic) is still bigger than Bumblez (sakura). I'm hoping this winter fasting can increase their lifespan and help them to become more lean rather than super tubby.

Bumblez (left) at 42g, and Oakki (right) at 51g

As for other ranchu tank updates it took my new aquarium about a month to cycle after I set it up and it wasn't a fish-less cycle (nitrite overload, uck) so, I feel that may be why my ranchu have a few fin-splits currently. I'm hoping their fins will mend back together now that the water has cycled, and I'm currently dosing them with some Melafix as that's usually a quick remedy for fin splits I've dealt with in the past. I've also noticed that cycling an aquarium for goldfish is much more tedious and important than with small tropicals, and I suppose it's due to the bigger bio-load that goldfish have.

Happy Nisai

The 1st of January marked my ranchu turning into Nisai so, what better way to start the new year than with another ranchu weigh-in! Also, if you didn't catch it on my Twitter earlier they will be moving into a bigger tank very soon.

Bumblez (left) and Oakki (right)

The last ranchu weigh-in was 3 weeks ago and Bumblez is now 38g, with a 3g gain from the last weigh-in. Bumblez is actually showing his gain for once but unfortunately its not as huge a gain as Oakki. It's no joke, Oakki is almost 10g bigger than Bumblez now which is pretty crazy. Even Oakki's top-view shape seems to be changing more around the sides of his head. So now that Oakki is weighing 47g today, its a 7g gain since their last weigh-in.

I think my goal for Bumblez right now is to have him be at least 50g by the end March, as it will mark them turning 1 year (12 months) old. Do you think Bumblez can do it? I bet Oakki will be at least 60g by the end of March, what ya think?

What's Nisai? Any ranchu born the previous calendar year (making the next year there 2nd year, but not meaning they are 2 years/24 months of age) regardless of what time of month the ranchu was born during that year (yes, even December). Nisai in Japanese means "two year old", but don't let that confuse you! 

Ranchu - Before and After

I just wanted to do a quick post to show you how much my ranchu have grown and changed over the course of around 4 months now, and they have definitely gained lots of weight since I first got them (the scales don't lie).

Bumblez (Sakura Ranchu)

Oakki (Black Metallic Ranchu)

According to the breeder these ranchu will be 1 year old (12 months) come March 2014.

Ranchu Weigh-In

Its been around 23 days since the ranchu's last weigh-in and Bumblez has finally put on some weight at 35 grams now, while Oakki is a whopping 40 grams.

Bumblez (left), and Oakki (right)

Bumblez gained 3.5 grams since the last weigh-in and Oakki gained 6.5 grams. In my opinion most of Oakki's weight/growth seems to be at his belly area and tail length, while Bumblez growth seems to be at his back and possibly a little on his wen. I still do around two 50% water changes at least twice a week, sometimes the depth of the aquarium water varies but I feel they do better at a depth no more than 10 inches (which was recommended to me by the breeder as well).

I've been trying out numerous foods lately and the first week they ate at least twice a day which varied and possibly consisted of some nori, NLS (New Life Spectrum pellets for Goldfish), sliced ginger, Hikari frozen bloodworms, plain cooked white rice, and Hikari Lionhead pellets (just playing with different food options). The second week since I had a fish sitter they were being fed once a day sharing a 1/4 Tsp of the NLS. The 3rd week I got a fish feeder which dispersed NLS gradually over 6 hours, then a few Hikari Lionhead pellets over the following 6 hours, and then the feeding repeated again throughout 24 hours so they're almost constantly able to graze for tid bits of food (which I've read is more natural for ranchu/fancy goldfish) although it's not really going over the amount of food they generally consume in a day.

Having the feeder does seem to make them more active and curious about finding food so I'll probably continue with that regime while also giving them frozen bloodworms 1-2 times a week along with it, and perhaps a little piece nori once a week (Bumblez seems to enjoy that, while Oakki seems to enjoy the daily pellets of Hikari Lionhead).

Ranchu Weigh-In

I bought an Ozeri kitchen scale ($18.85 on eBay) recently to weigh my ranchu's and track their dietary progress. Bumblez (sakura ranchu) weighed 31 grams and after 2 weeks he now weighs 31.5 grams (0.5 gram gain); Oakki (black metallic ranchu) weighed 28.5 grams and after 2 weeks he now weighs 33.5 grams (5 gram gain). I'm hoping Bumblez isn't sick or anything, he seems to eat but perhaps is just a slow and picky eater (compared to Oakki whom gobbles down everything).

Scale showing 2 different weights during this weigh-in.

Oakki has grown so much that my dad actually thought I had bought a new fish! Perhaps Oakki is just having some type of growth spurt, I have heard that fish with more hormones tend to grow more rapidly.

Aqueon QuietFlow 30 Power Filter - Review

There wasn't a free thermometer BTW.

Having recently purchased the Fluval AquaClear 50 power filter after reading all the rave reviews online, I found that after I observed the unit for myself that it wasn't going to be good for cleaning my aquarium. So, I exchanged the AquaClear for the Aqueon QuietFlow 30 because I do really like the Aqueon QuietFlow 20 and the 30 is around $10 less than the AquaClear and does the same GPH (Gallons Per Hour) although it doesn't have all the media things that the AquaClear has (the design of the AquaClear doesn't force water through all the media anyway, thus rendering all that media practically useless and even more costly with long term use in mind). If I had to recommend a Fluval power filter to try out I'd go with the Fluval C3 (although it only does 153 GPH and seems to be slightly pricier than its AquaClear cousin) because water is forced through all the media unlike with the AquaClear power filters, which makes the C-series seem more similar to QuietFlow's in that aspect(although the Fluval C-series appears more annoyingly complex in my opinion).

Aqueon QuietFlow 30 Power Filter and 'Large' carbon media cartridge

As for size difference with the Aqueon QuietFlow30 compared to the 20, the intake tube appears to be exactly the same in size, the box is around 1in longer and maybe 2mm wider, and the motor is also longer by about an inch. The 20 and bigger sized power filters all take the "Large" size cartridge's although the 90 takes 2 of the cartridges so, it's really only the GPH that changes between the 20 and 30. The 50 is slightly bigger than the 30 (as expected), but the intake tube changes to a wider tube with a longer vent area. A downfall I recently noticed is that the fan inside the motor (which is directly above the intake tube) can't be easily removed for cleaning so, if you have fish with a big bio-load (like goldfish) than you may find the buildup to block the fan from functioning (thus this filter will be rendered useless until fixed/cleaned).

As you can see from the above photos the media cartridge does not contain that much carbon (probably its biggest downfall if you're a carbon addict). The media box of the 30 does change compared to the 20 as it has some slats where the water first comes into the box from the intake tube (not sure the true reason for that), and thus far I do find the unit nosier than the 20 but also much more powerful (so it only makes sense I suppose that it would be nosier). There is also some room in the box if you wanted to add in some additional media.

The QuietFlow 30 with a Fluval pre-filter attached

As for extra's I put onto my Aqueon QuietFlow 30 I added on the Fluval Edge pre-filter sponge (fairly inexpensive and I like the soft texture of these ones) which fits perfects on the 20 and 30 (this pre-filter would be too small for the 50 and up, and I think the 10 also has the same size intake tube as the 20 and 30). The intake tubes are also adjustable by sliding the adjoining tubes up or down, the picture above shows it at its shortest length (I don't really care for the tubes longest possible length as it gets too wobbly for my preference).

Overall, I do recommend the Aqueon QuietFlow power filters, they work great compared to other LPS (Local Pet Store) HOB power filters I've tried in the past as they're pretty decent at cleaning. I reuse the cartridges for months at a time as they're pretty durable with weekly cleanings (thus saving money on cartridges in the long run). These aren't overly noisy although sometimes the filter cover on top tends to vibrate a bit (but with a little adjusting on occasion it stops). I also like how the cord tucks into the side of the unit and also how the motor is in the water and not outside the box (no having to worry about leaks or priming it with water to start up). The blue waterfall piece can be removed easily and cleaned, it allows water to drip down onto the waterfall bridge and it's pretty helpful at catching bigger debris (which I think is nice for those with planted tanks). One draw back I think may be an issue is the width of the unit in the tank, it seems to be too wide for a lot of aquarium hoods/tops (but since I only have a glass top I just pull it forward a bit to accommodate the unit, doesn't really bother me). I'd suggest the 30 for tanks bigger than 10-gal (as it made my 10-gal pretty darn turbulent) as it's probably better suited for a minimum of 20-gal, and it claims to also work for saltwater aquariums as well (if you do have a saltwater aquarium I'd recommend getting at least the 30 or higher models), and the 20 works fine for a 10-gal.

Treating Ich on Ranchu

This past week I made a big mistake thinking that my ranchu would be fine in a temporary bucket of water while I cleaned out the aquarium. Well, it took me awhile to get around to actually cleaning my tank so I transferred my ranchu into a new bucket of water and they ended up going through a drastic temperature change (ranchu can only handle around a 3-5F temperature change at time) and thus suffered from it. Bumblez is not at all a fan of cold water and thus he began slowing down his swimming, while Oakki had broke-out in ich on the front of his wen. Luckily I was able to remedy both of them at the same time, here's how I cured and treated the ich in under 3 days (be sure to treat ich ASAP)...

1: Do at least a 50% water change to the aquarium water (be sure the new water added in is within 3-5F of the current tank water temperature), and treat the water with Seachem Prime according to directions (Seachem Prime helps reduce stress, helps slime coating, and dechlorinates water).

2: Keep the water temp in the aquarium around 74-76F (I use an Aqueon heater), as this seems to be an ideal temperature for ranchu in general.

3: Add 1-TBSP of Aquarium Salt (I used the Jungle brand) per 8-10 gallons of water (aquarium salt reduces stress, provides electrolytes, and cleans.. it may also raise your pH so be sure to dose accordingly). Although it may not be necessary, I added in a pinch of aquarium salt everyday after this initial dose until my ranchu no longer showed signs of ich.

4: Turn off any aquarium lighting to reduce any stress caused by glare, etc as these fish have already undergone enough stress at this point.

5: Be sure to run an air diffuser in your aquarium (along with a 24/hr running filtration system) for at least several hours a day to insure the fish are getting plenty of oxygen in the water (this is very important if you are using any other water treatments to remedy your fish outside of what I have on this post), this is especially important for smaller aquariums and/or ones with a higher temperature.

I hope my ranchu ich remedy works for others just as well as it did for my ranchu, and be sure to do another 50% water change a few days after having done the first one as to reduce the risk of having ich spread, etc (just be sure the new water you're adding into your aquarium is in the ideal temperature range as I mentioned before, too drastic a change may only worsen or cause the ich to reoccur). Good/adequate water quality can solve a lot of problems (be sure ammonia levels are also in a safe range, preferably no traces of ammonia, this is especially important if you have a small or overcrowded aquarium).

Ranchu Artwork

My awesome new artsy friend Chris made me this cool drawing of Bumblez (my new sakura ranchu) the other day and I totally love this so, I just had to take a moment to share it with everyone on here!

"BLUH?"

If you want to checkout more of his work, etc you can find him at www.ChrisSpade.com.

East Coast Ranchu - Review

For a really long time now I had been wanting a ranchu and looking all over my local pet stores in hopes of coming across any. I really didn't have much luck and I did actually see what I believed to have been ranchu at a Walmart one night but... it was bad timing, I was worried about the quality of the fish, and so... I missed my chance. I even sent out e-mails to fish stores within a state or so of me since I burnt out all my options locally in the DC area, and either I didn't get any response or I got weird rude replies back.

It wasn't until I went searching again on eBay that I looked into eSeller eastcoastranchu. Turned out these 'side-view' ranchu are bred in New Jersey by a very kind and patient lady named Cynthia of East Coast Ranchu. I also found that East Coast Ranchu donates 10% of their earnings to GoldfishKeepers, and if you buy 5 or more ranchu's you can get 10% off. As you may have seen from a previous post I did on here she made a video of several ranchu for me after I told her the type of ranchu characteristics I was looking for. I ended up picking the one that stood out from the lot and got the cute red-capped sakura ranchu whom is even cuter in person. I did get the 2-day shipping and my poor fish ended up spending so much unnecessary time in its box going from NJ to lower VA, and VA to MD, and then they spent a good 9-hours of delivery time when I was only an hour away from the UPS location. Then my package finally arrived right before I had to leave for work that night (watch my video below to find out what happened next!).

Here's my adorable new pet ranchu's Bumblez and Oakki after a week of them settling into their new home!

Bumblez

Oakki

I will be doing another post in the near future on how I care for my new pet ranchu's.

My Ranchu - Coming Soon!

Recently I got to talk with the wonderfully kind Cynthia from East Coast Ranchu online about getting my first ever ranchu goldfish! I have been wanting a ranchu for like 13423534 years now (okay, that was a slight exaggeration) and I have done much research over the years on them (you should never get a new pet without having done some research BTW).

Cynthia was kind enough to make me a video of some fish she thought I'd be interested in per what I was looking for in a ranchu... now the only problem I faced was picking just 1 of these cute side-view sakura ranchu (so hard to choose when they're all super adorable). Can you guess which one I ended up picking?

One ranchu cost me $53.40 (included 2-day shipping to my location, etc), whoever thought freshwater fish were cheap was sadly mistaken. Mean while I have already been working on getting my ranchu aquarium setup, Cynthia also sent me a list of my fishes needs/requirements/etc so that definitely gave me a bit more helpful incite. Having had a few comets many years ago also helped remind me of what a goldfish's needs are and the things I know now which can better prepare me for my ranchu. I will also be doing a fairly elaborate post of my ranchu aquarium setup very soon.

Quick Tank Update

I purchased the Top Fin Greek Pavillion with Airstone for my 10 gallon fish tank recently but unfortunately it was slightly too wide to fit inside the tank, so either I'll return it or keep it until I decide to setup my larger tank again in the future. I did look at some of the other Greek style decor they had but I opted to purchase the Conceptual Creation Stack Stones I found in the terrarium isle instead. The devils ivy in my tank has grown a lot so I trimmed down the length of the vines and re-anchored them back into my tank. I am considering setting up another tank I have because I am looking into the possibilities of purchasing a Ranchu in the near future and I would not want a goldfish type living with my current fish. Unfortunately I did lose one of my store bought guppies during my week vacation (and no it was not the barb lover, hah). I also purchased a fisheye lense for my DSLR camera so you can expect to see a lot more of those photo's to come. I have been medling with my water quaility lately and it has been a learning experience which I hope to share more of soon.

Hope you enjoyed my quick video!