Ranchu

Ranchu by sim_ly2002

The ranchu is a hooded variety of fancy goldfish developed in Japan. It is referred to as the "king of goldfish" by the Japanese.

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 ranchu is a highly regarded fancy goldfish in Japan. Compared to lionheads, ranchus have a more downturned tail and tail fin. Although similar to lionheads, ranchus have more-arched backs and have much shorter tails that are tucked-in at a sharp angle.

Black Ranchu by Goldfish Queen

Top-view ranchu (TVR)

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 coi

Side-view ranchu (SVR)

A ranchu's back (seen from the side) is compared to a traditional Japanese comb, which comes in two shapes. The first comb-shape (the nagate or long style) is long with rounded corners and is similar to the koban coin. While the second comb-shape (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 such as the penny or dime of the United States. Both comb shapes are acceptable in ranchu exhibitions and competitions.

Selection and judging

Most goldfish shows and competitions judge ranchus in an aquarium setting, and judges view the fish from the side and the top, taking note of the fish's comportment and conformation to physical standards, motion and movements. The attachment of the tail to the caudal peduncle are also meticulously evaluated.

Pearlscale Goldfish

Pearlscale Goldfish by silveroses69's

The pearlscale or chinshurin in Japanese, is a spherical-bodied fancy goldfish with finnage similar to the fantail.

Crown Pearlscale by Goldfish Queen

The characteristic feature of the pearlscale is its thick, domed scales with pearl-like appearance. Its body is round and similar to a golf ball. The finnage may be long or short. Pearlscales can reach up to 8 inches long and grow up as large as oranges. However, pearlscale fancy goldfish are prone to swimbladder disorders which affect the ability to maintain normal position in the water.

This is attributed to the selective breeding process of fancy goldfish to achieve particular body forms, such as that of the pearlscale's. Selective breeding gradually resulted to the alteration of the appearance of the swimbladder.

The pearlscale standard is as follows:

• Depth of body to be greater than 2/3rds of body length
• Scales to be domed
• Dorsal fin to be single, all other fins to be paired.
• Caudal fin to be divided and forked and held above the horizontal.
• Extremities of fins to have a slightly rounded appearance.
• Minimum length of body to be 5.5 cm (2¼ inches).

The fish should be bright and alert and displaying well developed domed scales all over the body area. The body should be short and rounded (not elongated). The caudal fin should be held high without signs of drooping and well divided. Quality fish will have high colour intensity extending into the fins.

Variants

Pearlscales are found without headgrowth, with Oranda-like headgrowth or with two large bubble domes. The bubble-domed Pearlscales are known as high-head pearlscale, crown pearlscale or Hama nishiki.

Oranda Goldfish

Oranda Goldfish by kyhLiang

An oranda is a fancy goldfish characterized by a prominent raspberry-like hood encasing its head. The hood or headgrowth (also known as wen) encases the whole head except for the eyes and mouth.

Due to the fleshy outgrowth on the upper half of its head and sides of its face, the oranda has become one of the most popular goldfish.It is described as wen by the aquarists. The oranda is a metallic or matte scaled goldfish that is similar in appearance to the veiltail. It has a large, long and deep body accompanied by a long quadruple tail. This four-lobed and contracted tail normally spreads out broadly when the oranda stops swimming. The back does not rise up to form a ryukin-like hump.

Orandas are available in a variety of colors, most often orange, red, red-and-white, red-and-black, black, blue, chocolate, bronze, white or silver, black-and-white (panda-colored), red-black-and-white (tricolor), and calico colors.

The headgrowth of young fry may take one to two years to develop.The oranda can reach 8 to 12 inches (20 to 31 centimeters) in length.A specimen from China, named "Bruce" (after late actor and martial artist Bruce Lee), has attained 15 inches in length. Sometimes the wen grows enormously covering its eye,due to this the eye sight is limited or no vision.

These fishes should not be destroyed because they can still manage to survive. Special care should be given to the wen because it is prone to bacterial infections.Oranda can tolerate temperatures from 65-78 °F.More recently blue scale oranda have been developed but these fishes are very rare. Oranda goldfish are especially sensitive to cold temperatures, more so than other goldfish.

Variants

• The azuma nishiki is an attractive nacreous-colored form of the oranda.
• The red-cap oranda has a silver body with a prominent red headgrowth on the forehead.
• Chinese breeders have developed telescope eyed orandas, a cross-breeding of the telescope eye and oranda goldfishes.
• The hana fusa or white pompom oranda is an elegant pompom with a dorsal fin.
• The nagate oranda is a long body oranda developed in Shikoku, south west area of Japan.

Lionhead Goldfish

Lionhead by Doublechin

The lionhead is a hooded variety of fancy goldfish. This fish is the precursor to the ranchu.

Lionhead by mr.moh

The tremendous hood or headgrowth and fat cheeks of lionheads give them a facial appearance similar to canine puppies. The "wen" (Chinese term for headgrowth) fully covers the head, cheeks and gill plates of the fish. Furthermore, lionheads have short but deep bodies, and relatively straight or evenly arched backs without dorsal fins. The finnage, in general, is short.

Breeding standards require that the lionhead’s anal fins are paired, the double tail fin should not droop, and its upper edges should be held away from the body.[4] The tail of a traditional lionhead can be fully separated, partially separated, or webbed. The tail should also meet the caudal peduncle (the area where the body joins the tail) in a fashion that is almost perpendicular to the body.

The caudal peduncle is ideally broad, allowing the tail to open when the fish swims. The back of the proper lionhead is quite broad to support the placement of the raspberry-like hood. Hood development may vary but is more pronounced in males. The hood normally takes a year to develop in young fry. Mature male lionheads periodically shed patches of their headgrowths.

Lionheads can grow up to 6 inches (15 cm) in length (including finnage) and may have metallic, nacreous or matte scales. They come in a variety of coloration.

Lionhead by Doublechin

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 Japanese produced lionheads with more rounded back profiles, modified tails and diminished size of the headgrowth.

Lionchu Goldfish

Lionchu Goldfish by wikipedia

The Lionchu or lionhead-ranchu is a fancy goldfish that has resulted from crossbreeding lionheads and ranchus.

The Western criteria for lionchus combine the traditional characteristic side-view profiles of the ranchu and the lionhead. The ranchu's deep body, broad and curved back, and tail placement has been merged with the large headgrowth of the lionhead. Lionchus do not have dorsal fins.

Although at first, the lionchus were considered merely as mongrels, being hybrids of the lionheads and ranchus, the lionhead actually have an ancestor from Japan in the 1800s; it is then known as the shishigashira ranchu or lion-headed ranchu. The shishigashira ranchu is a ranchu-like goldfish with small amounts of headgrowth and some having small knobs and bumps on the back (a suggestion that the absence of the dorsal fin had not yet been stabilized at the time).

But the modern-day lionchu is considered to have originated from Thailand, and was popularized by a group of goldfish hobbyists in Singapore through RafflesGold.com, an internet-based goldfish forum site. The lionchu was officially recognized as a unique class of fancy goldfish during the "My Fancy Goldfish Competition 2006", which was held in Singapore from May 26-28, 2006.

Fantail Goldfish

Fantail Goldfish by M.H.ick9s

The Fantail goldfish is the western form of the Ryukin that possesses an egg-shaped body, a high dorsal fin, a long quadruple caudal fin, and no shoulder hump.

The Fantail goldfish may have either metallic or nacreous scales and normal or telescope eyes. Its finnage are less well developed than the Ryukin. It supports double anal and tail Fins. The anal and caudal fins are well divided into two matching halves. Although generally considered a hardy goldfish, Fantails can be sensitive to prolonged exposure to low water temperatures. Keeping Fantails in an aquarium requires an ideal temperature ranging between 55 to 70°F (13 to 21°C).

Fantails with red, bronze (more commonly known as chocolate), and calico colors are common. Other less common varieties exist, such as blue and white.

Calico Goldfish

Calico Goldfish by M.H.ick9s

Calico or nacreous goldfish are goldfish of any breed that sport a mixture of metallic and transparent scales that produces a pearly appearance. The name "calico goldfish" is often associated, and sometimes confused, with the shubunkin goldfish.

Calico goldfish have patches of red, yellow, grey and black along with dark speckles on a blue background. This nacreous coloration of usually extends over the fins.

Although calico coloration occasionally occurs in other fancy goldfish varieties such as telescope eyes, fantails, ryukins, orandas, and ranchus, this nacreous characteristic is usually exclusive to the shubunkins which are single-tailed fish that are similar to the common goldfish and could grow up to 12 inches in length.

Bubble Eye Goldfish

Bubble Eye Goldfish by Chi Liu

The Bubble Eye is a small variety of fancy goldfish with upward pointing eyes that are accompanied by two large fluid-filled sacs. It is a dorsal-less fish, and good specimens will have a clean back and eye bubbles well matched for colour and size.

The bubbles are fragile and the fish should be kept separately from boisterous types and away from sharp tank decor, although the bubbles will regrow if punctured. Given proper accommodation, the bubbles do not disadvantage the fish and they become very tame. It is known as suihogan in Japan.

Bubble Eye Goldfish by Chi Liu

The Bubble Eye normally has an evenly curved back that lacks a fin. The pair of large pouches of skin attached under its eyes jiggle as it swims. Bubble Eyes have metallic scales and they are similar to the celestial eye goldfish.

The eyes of the Bubble Eye goldfish are normal in the young fry, but will start to develop eye bladders three months after hatching. Like ranchu, the bubble eye goldfish lacks in dorsal fin and has a double tail. They normally grow up to 6 to 8 inches in length.

Panda Moor Goldfish

Panda Moor Goldfish by shuddernerd

The panda moor is a fancy goldfish with a characteristic black-and-white color pattern and protruding eyes.

Panda Moor Goldfish by shorty76

Panda moors have delicate projecting eyes, deep bodies, and long flowing fins. Like any other moor goldfish, pandas can grow very fat. They are metallic-scaled. Young moors resemble bronze fantails and their protruding eyes gradually develop with age. They sport a velvety appearance in maturity. However, they may lose this velvet-like appearance with increasing age. They are strictly a cool water fish like all other goldfish.

Black Moor Goldfish

Black Moor Goldfish by This Year's Love

The black moor is a telescope-eyed variety of fancy goldfish that has a characteristic pair of protruding eyes. It is also referred to as popeye, telescope, kuro demekin in Japan and dragon-eye in China.

Black Moors (Carassius auratus) have deep bodies and long, flowing finnage, along with characteristic protruding eyes. They are veiltailed and possess metallic scales with a velvet-like appearance.

Young Moors resemble bronze fantails. Their black coloration and eye protrusion develop with age. They can grow up to a length of 10 inches, but may not lose their velvet-like appearance with increasing age. Black demekins may also revert to metallic orange when exposed to warm water temperature. The fish can range in coloring anywhere from a lighter grey to a dark black, but most Black Moor goldfish don't stay pure black forever and many Of them change colors from a rust color underbelly to orange splotches.

Black moor goldfish are popular because they are hardy fish, and because their black color sets them apart from the more common gold color. Goldfish are typically easy to care for, surprisingly, black moors in particular are able to withstand a wide variety of temperatures but cannot withstand extreme temperatures.

Black Moor Goldfish by bfraz

Related fish include the entire "telescope" family, and can appear in red, red-and-white, calico, black-and-white, chocolate, brown, blue, bronze, lavender and chocolate-and-blue, tricolored, and black coloration. Black moors with a deep solid black color are difficult to find but are more stable in moors than any other goldfish variety. Black-and-white moors are known as panda moors.

It was once theorised that blackness in goldfish are only exhibited by the telescope-eyed goldfish and that the black colour is only a permanent fixture with telescope eye goldfish. However, with the recent entry of black lionheads (ranchus), black orandas, black pearlscales and black hibunas, this view is no longer true.

In fact, black moors do sometimes throw normal-eye offsprings, and they are black also. However, they are rejected as they do not conformed to the telescope eye feature for the Moor variety.