goin' goldfish hunting in Nara

[dick benbow]

goldfish from japan are expensive! China and other places somewhat better.
But like things koi, you get what you pay for. many of my koi aquaintences
are members of a koi and goldfish club that has shows for both. One good friend who took all the top prizes in koi for about 5 years has now switched over to goldfish. he buys the GC for a mere fraction of what he used to pay for his koi counterpart. keep in mind they are not as long lived, can't tolerate superverm,
like shallower ponds than koi and have certain balance and intestinal problems because of the altered body shape. My take on em is I might not be interested in keeping them myself, but I appreciate a very good one of it's kind!

[Mike T]

Matt:

There's a guy in Singapore who raises these goldfish as well as koi...seems to have a good background....He posts as "soelistyo", go to page 5, look for Bob Hart's post "Does the Beni of Homebread fair better" soelistyo was the last post...perhaps you can email him from this site....

Hope he can help you....

Aloha! Mike

[soelistyo]

hallo Mike, you summoned me? how's life?

well well well... so you said before that you're too old and retired to remember details like where your pond is or if you have a wife. and evidently you also forgot you owe me a momotaro jumbo tosai.
yet i see now you are able to remember that i keep goldfish, simply from one passing conversation via the net that took place about half a year ago. what gives, buddy? (heh heh).

yes, i do still keep ranchu. in fact, i now have a share in a ranchu shop here in jakarta .
i used to keep a few champion fish from KorinKai ranchu association, but have sold them off since i decided to partake in the ranchu shop, now i just keep what we can't sell.

i'm not sure i can be of much help to Matt except for idle chit chat like what i post for koi. my partner (now he is singaporean) is the one making the monthly trips to Japan to source for ranchu. i can't recall off hand exactly which places in Japan he visits (the slipping memory is, sadly, a sincere one in my case ;-) ), as he sources them from private breeders who are contactly through their respective associations.
i keep mainly Ojima and Hamamatsu bloodlines of ranchu. Ojima in particular is a very old bloodline.

what i can say, is that the experience of keeping ranchu cannot be compared to koi cause the enjoyment is quite different altogether. one doesn't have to choose between either. both have their unique interesting points, and a rich culture of appreciation which has developed over many number of years. i hope matt finds what he was looking for in Nara and enjoys his new-found hobby. It's not a cheap one, mind you, and has lots of moments of heartbreak, but seeing those little creatures wriggle their tails as they swim in their tub will make you forget a lot of things that you want to.