Broadtail moors - 2011

[afnaveils]

Bred by: Gerard Siew
Variety : Broadtail moor
Parents source: LFS (Aza Aquariums)
Spawned in Montreal : May 1, 2011
Hatched: May 4-5, 2011
Number of fry: about 40
Generation : F1
Context & goal: I was in UK last September and I completely forgot about bringing back some British Broadtail Moors. Then a few months ago, someone in the USA put some yearlings of that variety up for sale, so beautiful but too expensive for me. So, I decided to develop my own. I had a few regular moors and only one pair that have the potential to throw broadtails. They are from Chinese source. I had already decided to part with them and changed my mind for this project. If I'm lucky, I may find a few broadtails in this first batch.

May 7, 2011: The fry are already free swimming and eating BBS.
May 14, 2011: Revised count to about 100 fry.
May 16, 2011: Culling started; single tails culled.
May 20, 2011: Dorsal fin visible at 14 days old; objective of broadtail looking good.
May 26, 2011: Culling uneven-tail fry on sight; a few with crooked spine with good tail culled.
June 09, 2011: Some fry start to show dragoneyes and some are darker. Maybe some will turn red instead of black like their parents.
June 21, 2011: Not much change. I still have about 20 fry. I'm keeping the best 10.
June 29, 2011: Best fry have short tail, probably butterfly type and not broadtail as wished.
July 29, 2011: Finally, I kept 8 fry.

GERARD
Ranchus, Blue egg phoenixes, Bristol shubunkins, Calico and Philadelphia veiltails, Broadtail Ryukins and Moors, Shukins and Tosakins; Goldfish Society of Great Britain, American Ranchu Society, North American Veiltail Association, Blue Egg Phoenix Preservation Society

[CACAdmin]

May 7, 2011: The fry are already free swimming and eating BBS.
That's great news. :thumbup:

[Pamelajo]

Congrats!!!

[GaryofMontreal]

I'm wondering if you could describe the process a bit. I had pet store shubunkins breed a few years ago. They were in a 40 gallon in a greenhouse, and I raised a dozen or so in the end. The small numbers interested me, but it was an 'accidental' unplanned breeding so I hadn't observed anything til I saw freeswimming fry with the parents.
I had similar Springtime spawns with common goldfish overwintered indoors, although there were more of them. Are the small numbers on your domesticated forms the result of culling, or are the fancy forms less fertile?
I always assumed they would produce huge numbers and the breeders would select out the ones that had the form wanted. The small numbers are interesting.

[afnaveils]

Most of the fancy varieties of goldfish are almost as fertile as the common forms. We can have 2000 to 5000 eggs from one spawn and the fish can spawn every 2-3 weeks during breeding season. There are several factors tthat may result in small spawns: young females, young males, first spawn of the season, hobbyist's husbandry and inbreeding depression (there may be more).

I think my spawns are the result of the first 4 factors mainly, and all 5 when it comes to the Blue Egg Phoenixes.

In general, most varieties of goldfish do not breed true. Only about 20 % are decent, 10% are of high quality and about 2 % show quality. That's why goldfish command high prices the bigger you want them because the flaws are more visible and the number of quality fish decreases.

So, culling is very important for a goldfish breeder.