Goldfish Care : Ranchu

Many goldfish care articles only talk about general aquarium care, but not specific advices to improve your goldfish performance. Each strain or variety of goldfish needs special treatments to achive the purpose. This article contains tips about how to choose good Ranchu and specific Ranchu goldfish care. 

Ranchu is the most popular goldfish among hobbyists in many countries and is often called 'the king of goldfish'. It is the oldest variety of goldfish, founded in Japan around 1780s. In Japan, ranchu has a special position in Japanese society. In Chinese society, usually ranchus are kept as much as 8 or 9 (8 red + 1 black goldfishes) for a good fortune.

A ranchu has an egg-shaped body with a deep belly that is between 5/8 to 3/4 the length of the fish. This goldfish does not have a dorsal fin and breeding standards require that the back should not have any vestiges of the dorsal fin on it. The back should be rounded and not flat! 

Ranchu resembles Lionhead, but ranchu's back has more curve (more-arched back) than lionhead, it also has a shorter body and much shorter tail that is tucked-in at a sharp angle.

Lionheads were bred in China to depict the image of the mythical Chinese lion-dog (the shishi, in Japanese legend). They were introduced to Japan from China during the 17th and 18th centuries. 

The tremendous hood or headgrowth and fat cheeks of lionheads give them a facial appearance similar to canine puppies. Headgrowth fully covers the head, cheeks and gill plates of the fish. Lionheads have short but deep bodies, and relatively straight (flat) or evenly arched backs without dorsal fins.

The modern-day ranchu is a Japanese development of the lionhead. They are the direct outcome of crossbreeding experiments of different Chinese lionhead specimens (The Japanese produced lionheads with more rounded back profiles, modified tails and diminished size of the headgrowth). 

The Lionchu or lionhead-ranchu is a fancy goldfish that has resulted from crossbreeding lionheads and ranchus. The ranchu's deep body, broad and curved back, and tail placement has been merged with the large headgrowth of the lionhead.

Lionchu is considered to have originated from Thailand, and was popularized by a group of goldfish hobbyists in Singapore.

 

Ranchu breeders, as well as many prestigious goldfish-keeping societies, all adhere to two strict viewing classifications of the ranchu, namely: the Top-view Ranchu and the Side-view Ranchu.

Top-view Ranchu

 

The Japanese are firm believers that the best view of the ranchu is from the top. The ideal ranchu is described (when seen from above, not from the side) as similar to the koban, an elongated and oval-shaped (almost rectangular but with rounded corners) old Japanese coin.

 

 

Side-view Ranchu

A ranchu's back (seen from the side) is compared to a traditional Japanese comb, which comes in two shapes:

• The Nagate or Long style is long with rounded corners and is similar to the koban coin (old Japanese coin).
• The Marute or the Round style is shorter, round and is similar to a round coin viewed from the side, but still not as round as any modern-day circular coins.

Both comb shapes are acceptable in ranchu exhibitions and competitions.

Choosing tips for Ranchu :

1. The best body shape is an egg-shaped body, the back should be rounded (not flat), not wavy and shouldn't have any vestiges of the dorsal fin on it!

2. Good ranchu should have a big head with the proportion : 1/3 of the length of the body. There must be sufficient space between the eyes, and also from the eyes to the front of the head. The gill cover should figuratively extend quite far towards the tail. The headgrowth should seem to begin from the bottom of the gill cover and move upward. The headgrowths of young ranchu fry may take at least a year to develop. Young ranchus possessing broad foreheads and square noses generally produce better headgrowths.

3. The area of the caudal peduncle (the narrow part of the body to which the tail attaches) should curve sharply downwards to meet the tail. The caudal peduncle itself should be broad and neither lengthy or too short (a properly formed caudal peduncle avoids swimming motion impairments to this type of goldfish). The ranchu's tail meets the caudal peduncle at a 45° angle, giving the fish a unique swimming motion. Good tail also shouldn't be folded, the tail lobes are rounded, and all other finnage are paired (has the same size & shape for each side).

This is important especially when choosing a baby ranchu, this tail position keeps ranchu swims horizontally. Never choose ranchu with a tail position at a complementary angle (90°), they will swim vertically!.

Ranchu has many color variations : plain red, plain white, plain brown, red-white, tancho (white body with red crown), sakura (red-white-black) and plain black. Scalation may either be metallic, nacreous (calico) or matte.

Breeders also creates many new varieties such as Pearl-scale ranchu (plain white and black) or light/pale-yellow ranchu. Ranchus with a pale-yellow bodies and bright red heads are rare.

Goldfish care tips for Ranchu :

• Ranchu CAN eat both floating & sinking food . 

Sinking pellets are believed by some hobbyists can avoid Swim bladder problem, the most common ranchu problem. While floating pellets can make ranchu swallow too much air (when sucking the food from the top of the water they will suck in air, which will inflate the swim bladder) and eventually keep ranchu floating up to the top of the tank and then eventually flipping over.

This is NOT true due to several facts:

1. There is NO connection between the digestive system and the swim bladder in Goldfish. Most of the air bubbles that is sucked while goldfish sucking floating pellets will automatically be expelled through its gills, very few air will go to the digestive system and may cause air bubbles in feces. Therefore, Floating pellets DO NOT cause Swim bladder problem.

2. Swim bladder problems can be caused by food impaction, internal bacterial & viral infections, or hereditary problems.

However, feeding dried foods (BOTH floating & sinking pellets, flakes and other dried food) which tend to take on water like a sponge and expand in the fish can cause food impaction then lead to swim bladder problems. It is the swelling/expansion of food in the gut that causes impaction and it is the impaction, NOT AIR, that causes swim bladder problems! How? 

Food impaction could press the digestive organs against the swim bladder, not allowing it to work properly.

You may have to presoak the dry food if your ranchus are sensitive to it (see if your ranchus show any sign of swim bladder disorder - swimming sideways, floating up, unable to rise to the surface or clearly having trouble swimming).

It is also beneficial to include easily digestible plant foods such as duckweed, algae, cooked peas that has been crushed and wheat germ to aid digestion & can help relieve swim bladder problems caused by food impaction.

 

• Feed ranchu twice a day (in the morning & afternoon), do not overfed your goldfish. Overfeeding can make them bloated, uncomfortable and at the worst case, they can die if they are unable to digest it.

• Ranchu also enjoy oranges, mandarins, live food, worms, and shrimp. Give additional frozen bloodworm or live tubifex worms (if possible) on their diet to accelerate growth. Beware of fish diseases when feeding your fish with live food!

• Slow currents makes it's muscles works and form the good body shape.

• Add fish salt (read the dosage) after you change the water.

• Ranchus are well-adapted to water quality and pH fluctuations.

Now you know how to choose the 1st grade Ranchu and care-tips for them. But first, you should create a healthy environment for your aquatic friends in your tank. Read our freshwater fish supplies article for your guide. 

See you in our next articles.