Hi there

Thanks Of course I would love to visit the farm direct.. is it close to central bangkok? accessible?

Quoting what you say in one of your posting,

"From my experience with the ranchu scene in SG (from my participation in the 1st National Ranchu Show in SG and the touring of the ranchu shops and talking to dealers and SG ranchu personalities), there are still a lot of wrong information about ranchu among most dealers and hobbyists.
"

What is the wrong information/perceptions that Singapore ranchu hobbyists have??? If truly something is wrong here, we need to be "re-educate" of what is correct. Appreciate your advice.

Thanks.

So why don't you tell me what you know about fish, first so then I can tell you what's wrong, or right with it. Last I check there are no breeders of TVR in SG. I met a couple of farms there that are trying to breed, plus a friend of mind, Mr.Lim Heng Nai, and one more dealer that's working with my Thai colleagues. There are no competition that utilized Japanese judges, so the correct information is very hard to come by. Most of the people who import the fish, seem to be the one who set the standard, which by the way is not in accordance with the Nichiran standard. My experience comes from running a professional outfit and successfully breed TVR and arranging competitions with Masters from Japan in accordance with the International ranchu standard. Also I know almost every dealers of ranchu in SG from my visits and I also have many SG friends who are ranchu hobbyists. And if I can go by all the fish that showed up for the Yuhua Show, you guys have problem with space and most of you raise fish in small aquarium with very little sun light. The TVR do not grow very big and the colour and scale condition need improvement. We used to have similar problems ten years ago in Thailand.

Most SG hobbyists are not experience about competition standards (topview particularly). I asked many hobbyists at the National Show on what they look for while they select fish, and most of them would say that they have to rely on what the dealers tell them and by the prices. Most of the dealers do not know how to treat their ranchu properly at their shops, thus they could not possibly convey the right message, and then there are no fish over 18 cms. That is the result of the lack of proper knowledge. All the Oya at the SG national show came from Thailand. I, however, saw many beautiful nisai fish at the Show but most are very pale and lack width and size. These fish could grow into even more majestic oya, with the proper caretaking.

Most people learn from dealers, who themselves, do not have the expertise in how to promote good health, how to feed properly or even how to remedy sickness. Many of the fish at the Yuhua competition were sick. It really bothered me that most of the owners didn't even know that. These are some of the basic knowledge that should be widespread. You should know if you are killing your fish from either the lack of knowledge or bad information, don't you think?

I would hope that fish keepers are similar people, those who care about taking care of their fish. If you are an expert then, please ignore my post; or even better-offer some advice. If you come into my house and you see that I am doing something wrong, I would hope that you would try to help me by telling me. But if you would like to make trouble about nationality and create unfriendly atmosphere then I think that you should go else where where it's more political or contact me personally. I am an adviser here because I am an expert in TVR, and my job is to advise people about them to spread the proper knowledge. If you think that my advice is wrong, please tell me how I am wrong, correct me and tell me how I can improve. I think that ultimately, we all want to talk fish more.

Peace and sawasdee krap

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Loyalty above all else, except honor.

Hi Pat, nice to see you here. I may be going to Bangkok mid to end of next month. Maybe I can visit your facility if I do? The last time I wanted to buy ranchu for you but it was inconvenient at the time. And after that I asked a dealer from KL to go see you when he went to Bangkok. He did bring in a few of your ranchu, but he brought them in too late as when he finally got the shipment in I was about to leave Malaysia for UK in less than a week. Those were very nice pieces too. Hopefully I can make it Bangkok and get some of your ranchu

Pat,

Thanks for your reply. The first question you throw back to me is a very general one. Different type of fishes have different types of requirements for their well-being. As for ranchus, I keep most of mine in a rented outdoor pond (size about 8 feet by 6 feet) with plenty of sunshine at a fish farm. I feed them food like Japan Ranchu Lord, Fish Born, Chanko and etc. I do regular water change (at least once a week, 100% change). I must admit that our temperature and water in Singapore may not be conducive to ranchu. Any other recommendations to me?

As for Nichiran standard, I do know about it but do not claim to be an expert in it, e.g. about width and/or length of the head, setting/distance of the eyes, backbone thickness, tail seat, Oza, scaling, swimming posture and etc. I constantly improved myself by looking at real fishes or pictures of Japanese magazine esp. those featuring ranchus that took part in various Japan competitions. I also talked to other hobbyists and try to participate in the limited ranchu clubs that we have in Singapore. It may or may not be enough, but if it is not enough, what do you recommend that I do to improve myself further? Any suggestions that you may have to improve the standards in Singapore?

Last but not least, I'm no trouble maker, just a very curious/inquisitive hobbyist. I know and met a few of your Singapore friends (e.g Mr. Lim HN, Mr. David Hou and etc)and you can find out from them what kind of person I'm like.

Hope I have answered your questions and clarified any doubts you may have.

Thanks and Best Regards
P Y Koh

It is very nice to hear from you again. Please feel free to come check us out at the farm. We have certainly grown leaps and bounds since last we conversed. I look forward to hearing your comment about the fish this time around since you have seen our ranchus from the past. Hope that you had a blast in the UK, aight.

__________________
Loyalty above all else, except honor.

Will try my best to make it this time. The dealer who I suggested to go see you and brought in some of your ranchus said looking at your ranchus in Thailand was a definite eye opener

First I would like to suggest that you find some vegetable in addition for your fish. This is very important for the scale and colours. In Thailand, we have this floating vegetable (called duckweed in english) which is very small and very rough to the touch. (Japanese keepers also use this.) Just like people, fish also need to have salads. Some friends of mine in Bangkok could not possibly find time to find this vegetable to feed their fish, thus they substitute with spirulina capsules (some also just let the algae form on the side of the pond alot). They would open the capsule up and feed the fish since they are babies and his ranchu also develop a very good colour and complexsion. For the water, I think that as long as it is not underground water, all water is pretty much ok. (no chlorine) I raise my fish in a big pond with a large filtration system filled with coral pieces and it has raised the water ph in my pond to be over 8.3 (which is not ideal) but the fish seem to be coping with it quite well and the growth has not suffered any. As long as when you change the water , you do not let the temperature change more than 5 celcius, your water should be quite alright.

On the raising of the awareness of the international competition standard (Japanese ranchu standards), I plan to be posting many more threads that will take care of all this concern, since all the pamphlets and information that I will post were provided for us by Mr.Kashino and Mr. Mita at his last ranchu seminar on standard in Bangkok last year. Mr.Kashino, Mr. Mita and many other Japanese breeders have organized ranchu seminars regularly every year during their visits to Bangkok. Furthermore, we will be looking forward to cooperating with the local ranchu enthusiasts and organizations to arrange more competitions that will utilize Japanese judges. This alone will help to alleviate all of the ranchu enthusiasts' concern about the quality of their fish.

Last but not least, my comment earlier was my initial reaction to your comment about the "re education" of people. I thought that it was a jab at me for trying to spread the wrong message to people to sell my own fish. Any one who has surf the ranchu web, whether in the RG, AF, Yahoo Ranchu, Petsfanatics, and ranchushop.com, may have read some of the threads I have posted before. All will find that I always want to talk about ranchu and trying to spread the right information in how to take care of and breed ranchu. I have posted from feeding to breeding information in hoping that more people will get the message. As far as I know, in the past no one was willing to do anything to help the ranchu hobbyists, even among Thai keepers. Ranchu is such a secret and every one who has anything to do with it always seem to try to keep the circle close to outsiders. I have to apologize to you if I have offended you, but it was not my intention. As you are a serious ranchu keeper, like I am, I just want to find the truth about the fish in hope of raising our fish to be as beautiful as possible. It is true that the Absolute Fisheries is in the business of selling ranchu in accordance with the Nichiran standard, and with the standard being raised accordingly, one can argue that we will benefit from that. But I think that if all dealers compete for your hard earn money with quality, then it's not all bad.

In the future, if you have any thing that I can be of help with about ranchu, I would hope that you will not hesitate to let me know.

With best regards, and sawasdee krap

Pat

__________________
Loyalty above all else, except honor.