You've officially been infected!
Lol, so the bloodworms were too big. I switched to frozen brine shrimp and they are eating them fine.
I also tossed in a sinking pellet which seems to have gotten demolished so
https://youtu.be/lnY0iF-uI9I
They are slightly larger than the ones I use but they'll eat the bloodworms too, they just need to get used to them.
I'm curious - if I grow them in shallow water, will they have trouble transitioning into deeper water?
Whats the deepest you recommend? I'm more concerned with health issues than developing the perfect specimen but would like to find a happy medium.
Would 30" be too deep? What actually happens to them if they are grown/live in deep water?
Last edited by rainblood; 07-28-2016 at 07:49 PM.
It is said that deeper water will collapse their tails, but that makes them swim better, just not be as nice of a top view tail.
I don't keep them in water deeper than a foot when full grown but they are tough strong fish and should adapt.
Just remember, if you stare at them to long, you may develop gills.
Ok so I realized very quickly that I wasn't going to be able to keep the water as pristine as I'd like inside.
So I'm going to go with my original plan of floating them in containers and putting them inside my 300gal stock tank.
The stock tank has an airstone in it and is flow through with pond water.
I drilled holes in the sides of the floating containers - I have 2. A small one for 4 of the smaller ranchu and a large one for the other 8.
I'll see if this setup works.
https://youtu.be/xy_4KzpJ6Dc
Last edited by rainblood; 07-29-2016 at 04:19 PM.
if you feed them well, they make a lot of waste. Your set up looks like it will work.
Yes
How big should these guys be at the end of the season? I realize this depends on several variables, but what is a good benchmark?
And when do they usually start changing color? I have 2 currently that are blonde - the others are still gray.
Last edited by rainblood; 08-01-2016 at 01:13 AM.
They should be as large as you can get them. Not meaning to be a smart ***, just that every situation is different and there are so many variables. The fish I'm growing out are pushing two inches plus and might get to three before things cool down. If you want big fish, you'll know you're feeding them enough when there is still good left over and they are so full they just float there dreaming of when they will have room for more food. Let algae grow in the walls they live to eat that as well.
In my fish I have about 10% that have changed color. The later changing fish are more likely to be red and white as all my early fish are usually solid Orange.