China's Finest Goldfish

The final part of the Fu Jian trip. This will also be the final update of my goldfish tour in China. In part 3 I will show you my visit of a relatively small farm. There isn't a lot of fish in the farm, and I was't impressed at first sight. Luckily, I was wrong. Maybe I should say I was very very lucky. I had the chance to meet with a legendary goldfish breeder, the person who first successfully created and stabilized panda goldfish! After showing me his farm and his "projects", we sat down and chatted for a couple of hours. He did most of the talking, so it was really a precious goldfish lecture to me! Anyways, lets see some photos.

Calico Ranchu.

Another angle. 

Notice the big hood on the head of this pretty sakura ranchu. 

Nice coloration on the bottom sakura ranchu. 

Funny red nose.. lol

The coloration can't get any better. The blue base on the top ranchu is insane. 

Very pretty calico..

Red white ranchu. Looks like the red white ranchus here all got hoods on their heads!

Body shape is not bad. 

A rabbit (red eyes, white body) with pineapple head. 

Jade rabbit!

Broad tailed ryukin with pompoms!

Red Black oranda with huge pompoms..

Amazing fish!

Great looking ranchu.

Anyone want to guess what color this bronze ryukin will turn into? I'm sure you will be wrong!

Ryukin with extra long fins, a variety that the owner is trying to create.

These fish are also very attractive on side views. 

Huge Panda dragon eyes. 

Very unique coloration on these pandas...

Butterfly tailed, short bodied ryukin!!

Butterfly

Ryukin

Black red ranchu

Broad tailed ryukin with pompoms

So beautiful. This really is a variety that can dominate the side view competition.

Gold black dragon eyes.

Beautiful ryukins

Another broad tail

This broad tail will become a panda.

Interesting coloration

Tri color ryukin!

Another view.

The tail is huge on this broad tail. It almost look like a butterfly tail!

Very close to tosakins.. 

A new variation from the calico the breeder is trying to stabilize. 

Top view.

It looks like an oranda if you look just at the head.. It is actually a ranchu!

Calico ranchu with red cap.

The head growths on these two are different from the others. They have the genes of Thai ranchus.

This one will probably turn into a panda ranchu!

Obviously this farm contains all kinds of new and interesting varieties that the owner, Mr. Wang is trying to develop. One amazing thing I must mention for Mr. Wang is that he has been operating the farm as a side hobby. Yes, he developed panda and many other varieties with his spare times! Now he is retired and is planning to put all his energy into his goldfish farm. 

Today I will introduce the biggest farm I have visited in my trip. This farm has about 70000 square meters of concrete fish ponds and 100000 square meters of mud ponds. Not only the farm is big, their fish are seriously huge too! Ranchu is the main focus of the farm, so ranchu lovers be prepared!

It wasn't easy to get here, but it was worth it for sure :)



The breeding season started not long ago. The fly here grow really really fast.


Calico Ranchus, top quality!


Sakura Ranchu.


Large reds and red whites.


Partial top view. Beautiful!!


Fat and big..


Top view.


Sakura, great body shape.


Beautiful coloration.


Red capped kirin.


Top views.


Red Ranchu.


The tail could be a bit better. Remember all the fish are just randomly scooped, not picked!


Large red oranda. Short body, reduced cap.


"Flagged" ranchu (ranchu with dorsal fin!)


Large red white oranda.


XXLarge red oranda, this one is only 2 year old!


A bit of poor scaling.. lol


Again..


The almost tosakin.. broad tail ryukin!


Crazy tail..


Black ranchu


Bronze ranchu


Nice head growth.


Amazing coloration on these red capped calico ranchus.


Red capped kirin gold black ranchu... this one is a champ.


Perfect coloration.


The grandpa of all ranchu (flagged).. well at age 2!


Notice the small tail.. these are actually ranchus!!

Hope you all enjoyed this update!

Fu Jian is the famous place where the true "Chinese Ranchu" was created. Smart breeders combined lionhead with Japanese ranchu, resulting a distinct type of ranchu that has excellent side and top views. In addition to the body shape, new colorations and patterns are also introduced into the ranchu world. Fu Jian is located at the southern China, meaning the growing season for goldfish is very long (hint hint). Anyways, the trip was extremely fruitful, so I will be dividing it into 3 parts. In part 1, I will show you the biggest "flower, bird, fish, insect market" in Fu Jian. 

Different types of goldfish hold in typical trays.


Commons and comets are sold everywhere.


Closer look at the trays: orandas, ranchus, dragon eyes, etc..


Sakura Demekin.


Black and calico demekins.


"Tiger" demekin





Red Caps.


Orandas and a few dragon eyes.


More red caps.


Crazy!


This market is HUGE. Birds, dogs, fish, plants, fishing gears, Chinese furnitures....





A few beautiful parrots.





In part2 of the update we will visit a mega sized fish farm...

This is part 1 of the Beijing fish farms update... well that is if there is a part 2.

Usually a single fish trip is divided into several updates since there are just too many photos that I want to show.

This time it is a bit different due to a number of reasons:

1st: The place is pretty well known (didn't hear much about the fish quality though).

2nd: But the trip was unbelievably unfruitful. 

3rd: Since it was so unfruitful, I began to doubt if I have missed any good farms.

4th: Therefore, I might visit there again. 

Goldfish aside, the trip was fairly interesting so I will share it anyways :)

The goldfish farms are located far far far away from the city. After a morning of tough traveling I finally came to the bus stop of the only 1 bus that can reach the farms. Waited at the bus stop for a long time, I asked a local if we were at the right station, she said: "yes, it is just that the bus doesn't come that often... I am planning to walk, it isn't far at all". According to the bus route, the farms are only 2 stations away, so I decided to follow her and walk there. 

It was a beautiful day, and the view wasn't bad along the road. Anyone want to guess what kind of farm is this?

Lotus farms! Lotus root is a common food for the Chinese.

After about 2 hours of walk, we finally reached the farms. One important thing I learned that day: the distance between bus stops in rural area is about 5 times further than that of the stops in the city.

Well I was for sure happy to see the farms after the long walk! Even though the farms are micro scaled, there were a lot of them.

Red caps with big big hoods..

Red and black dragon eyes waiting to be bagged.

Young red orandas.

Black dragon eyes (and 2 kois lol).

Red and black dragon eyes, nothing fancy.

Red caps with even bigger caps!!

No, your tanks are not overstocked. 

A clean pool of goldfish can look spectacular, even with just red commons!

I must mention they are not the common feeders though, look at the amazing red on them!

There is a aquatic trading center nearby the farms, it was quiet and empty, but guess what I found in their huge display tanks.

And....

I hope Mr. Crocodile concluded this update well for me :)

In part 3 I will show you the best farm I have visited in He Nan. 

Lets first take a look at a few concrete pools.

Mainly black and red dragon eyes.


Some orandas.


Pool of lionheads or ranchus. Some excellent quality there!


Dragon eyes with an interesting black and red pattern.


Top quality white and red orandas!


Although a bit slim, great color patterns!


A couple of rare jade caps and the rest are mostly red capped.


A big mom with a belly full of eggs.


Speechless tri-color oranda.


One of the best tri-color oranda I have seen.


Great black and red oranda.


Same fish. A side view can really show how fat a goldfish is.


Another great fish with great colors, note the wonderful symmetrical red on the body.


Now a jumbo 2 year old calico. Crazy head growth!


I will need two hands to safely hold it.


Top quality lionheads. A couple of tanchoes, a red white, and a.. purple orange??


Red eyes and red lips. The scales are clearly defined and of uniformed sizes; a sign of high quality goldfish.


Cute red and white lionhead on the right with red eyes. The chocolate and gold lionhead has rare colors, but it is unlikely that the color will stay.

Lets take a look at some top quality butterfly tails.





This is what top quality Chinese ranchus and Thai ranchus look like.






We often speak of dragon eyes this dragon eyes that, but honestly, the dragon eyes people see in the markets are not truely dragon eyes. To conclude our update of today, let me show you some real dragon eyes.










Notice how the eyes are not all the same: some silver, some black, some round, some pointy, etc. To really see how big their eyes are you need to compare the size of the eyes with the body. They are all really young fish, but the eyes are already comparable to 2,3 year old "dragon eyes".