Episode 185 - Colourful Angels

"Angels are all around us, all the time, in the very place we live."

These are two of the Discuses I purchased from the pet shops at Prince Edward recently. The one in the first photo is a Red Turquoise; and the second one is a Pigeon Blood.

When they were first introduced to Hong Kong, Discuses were sold at very high prices. In the light of the profit margin, the tropical fish farmers soon acquired the skill to bred these fishes locally. Save for those newly developed species, the prices of the discuses have now dropped to a reasonable and affordable level.

Local people like to call the discuses the "Colourful Angels" and consider them to be one kind of Angle Fishes. While both the Discuses and the common Angel Fishes belong to the Cichild Family, it may not be correct to consider discuses as one variety of Angel Fishes. In any event, this is what they are being called here.

All the "Angels" hid behind the plants as soon as I released them into the fish tank. They even refused to eat anything in the first week and I worried that they would soon become angels. I tried to keep the environment quiet and treated the "Angels" with frozen worms. It worked! They are now swimming leisurely in the tank and will ask for food as soon as I walk close to the tank. Apart from worms, I also feed them with flake type fish food. I learned that the discuses can be fed with certain kind of hamburger - with cow's heart and shrimp as the main ingredient. That's why the discuses in some pet shops are so fat!

I keep some neon tetras with the "Angels" and they appear to be living together peacefully. Occasionally, the "Angels" would quarrel and fight among themselves - annoying but acceptable.

Episode 184 - Morning Fish Market

"There are many pet shops at the Prince Edward District, selling goldfish, tropical fish, coral fish, and aquarium products. ...........

"Apart from the shops, fish hawkers gather together in a nearby area in the form of a flea market, with locally bred goldfish and tropical fish offering for sale at a very competitive price. These hawkers arrive at the vicinity in the early morning. They leave early as well." - Episode 54 - Tiger Head



I and Chiu Yin visited the morning fish market today. We got up at 6 a.m. and took a cross harbour bus to Kowloon. We got off the bus at a stop near Prince Edward. After a 10 minutes' walk, we arrived at the fish market at Boundary Street.

The market starts at around 5:00 a.m. everyday. It is not a licenced market but the government has closed one of its eyes on this for many years. The sellers are self-disciplined and will leave before 8:00 a.m.

As you can see from the photos taken by Chiu Yin above, there were many fish sellers doing business along the street this morning and there were a lot of choices. Apart from common tropical fishes and goldfishes there were many strange fishes which we had never seen before (not even in books!). We also saw various kinds of tortoises and hermit crabs.

The prices of the "goods" were very attractive and there were a large number of buyers as well. The fishes were packed and sold in plastic bags.

You can get a good price if you purchase a large bag with over 20 tails of goldfishes or 100 tails of neon tetras or guppies.

Episode 149 - Vegetarian Goldfish

A new photo of the Red Cap and the Tiger Head.

The goldfish has been growing well. The Red Cap has developed long tail fins. The Tiger Head has longer tails too but the head growth is yet to develop.

Last month, I discovered that the goldfish's appetite was bad and seemed to have got diarrhea. I changed the pellets and fed them with more vegetable leaves. It worked and the fish soon recovered.

I find that the fish loves vegetables with soft leaves. "Choy Sum" and "Pak Choy" are their favourites.

Episode 76 - Goldfish Tank: How I keep it clean

Cleaning a goldfish tank appears to be an annoying task to most goldfish lovers.

Goldfish produces a lot of waste everyday and the water is clouded easily.

Belows are some knowhow on how to keep a goldfish tank clean:

1. Keep reasonable number of goldfish: Less fish = less waste

Don't keep as much fish in a tank as most of the pet shops do - they can do it because they clean their fish tanks a few times everyday.

I keep 8 goldfish in a 68 L aquarium - it is already over-crowded. If you keep less fish, you should make suitable adjustments to what I said below.

2. Feed the goldfish once a day: Less food = less waste

I feed my goldfish with pellet food once a day. I find that it is worth to buy some high quality pellets as a small amount of them already contains sufficient nutrition to keep the fish in good health. I feed only one teaspoon of pellets everyday (the amount will be increased as the weather gets warmer) to my goldfish and they are in perfect health condition - the owners of the pet shops will of course be very happy if you feed your fish three times a day.

The pellets to be fed should not exceed the amount that the fish can consume within 3 to 5 minutes.

I feed the fish with live food, in addition, once a week. Occasionally, I treat the goldfish with slices of vegetable leaf.

3. Filtering System: Effective Filter = clean water

I use one small overhead filter: The filter includes the following filtering materials (in order of position): 1 pack of bio rings, 2 layers of cotton, 2 packs of active carbon, 2 layers of cotton. The filter system has 2 filtering tasks:

a. The materials themselves can physically filter out the waste of the fish; and
b. The bacteria develops in the system can turn the toxic chemicals (which also clouds the water) into harmless chemicals.

Many people focus their attention on the first task only and keep on changing / replacing / cleaning the filtering materials. They end up facing a clouded aquarium helplessly.

It takes time to develop the good bacteria: Hence it is important that you don't (or not often and not thoroughly) wash the bio rings and you only clean half of the filtering materials each time: I clean the first 2 layers and the last layer of cotton and one pack of active carbon in the first week and clean the other pack of active carbon and the last 2 layers of cotton the other week. You should never replace or clean all the cotton in one go. Wash the cotton only with the water you pump out from the tank for replacement.

If the water condition does not have much improvement (you have too much fish and not enough bacteria), you should adjust the cleaning method:

Remove the second last layer of cotton once every three days. Move the last layer of cotton up as the second last layer. Add a the cleaned layer of cotton as the last layer. Do not touch the bio ring, the active carbon and the other layers of cotton. Let the fish wastes pile up in the filter. It's the only way to develop a large number of good bacteria in the filtering materials.

Replace one pack of active carbon after 45 days (or within a shorter period if you are rich) and the other pack another 45 days (or less) later.

If this is your first time to use a filtering system, you have to clean the filtering materials (but not the bio ring if it comes with bacteria enhancer. Some active carbon can be used direct.) thoroughly before you put them into the filter. Before it develops enough bacteria, the aquarium will still be clouded for a few days (or one week or more). Do not be tempted to replace the filtering materials - the owners of the pet shops will be very happy if you do so.

4. Air Pump: Air bubbles = dissolution of waste

It is very important that you have an air pump for the aquarium. It is wrong to assume that the filtering system can bring in fresh water with enough oxygen. Apart from providing enough oxygen, the air bubbles created by the air pump can assist to dissolve the goldfish waste such that they can be filtered easily by the filtering system. It also assists to develop the good bacteria.

5. Change Water: More clean water = less dirty water

I change one-tenth of the water once every 3 days.

Episode 71 - Ryukin

This is one of the 4 Ryukins in my aquarium.

It is a goldfish of Japan origin. A typical Ryukin has a mouse-shaped head, a round body and short tail fins.

This Ryukin is in silver white with red patches. According to a specialist book, this colour combination is not natural. The red patches were created by adding some sort of chemical to the skin of the fish when it was young.

I purchased all 4 Ryukins in one go from a pet shop in Prince Edward. This fish was the last one I bought. As there were nearly 100 goldfish in the water tank of the pet shop, I was confused after choosing 3 of them. I therefore asked the shop keeper to assist and he picked out this one for me. It turned out to be the best (in terms of colour, shape, balance of the body and fins) of the 4 Ryukins I have.

Episode 55 - Red Cap

Another goldfish from my fish tank.

The Red Cap belongs to the "Gentle" variety and is one kind of High Heads (also known as the Orandas). Unlike the Tiger Head, the rasberry-like head growth of the fish covers only the top of the head. As you can see from the photo, the fish looks like wearing a red cap. The Red Cap is also known as the "Red Spot on the Head of a Crane". Other than the red spot on the top of its head, the fish is silver-white in colour. Any colour on the body will "disqualify" it. This fish is up to standard.

It is not difficult to take care of a goldfish. Just stick to the following guildlines, assuming that you keep your goldfish in an indoor water tank of reasonable size and feed it with pellets purchased from the pet shop:

1. Never overfeed your fish: Goldfish loves eating. It eats a lot without knowing when to stop. Overfeeding will kill the fish - because of bad digestion or intoxication (water fouled by the food or the excretion of the goldfish). Feed the fish only once or twice a day and not exceeding the amount that it will consume within 3-5 minutes. Goldfish will stop eating (or eat very little) if the temperature is very low in winter. Do not feed your goldfish at night.

For newly purchased goldfish, in particular if you need to travel a long way home from the pet shop, do not feed it in the first 2 days. Let it settle down first before giving it any food.

Feed your goldfish occasionally with live food (worms or meat cut into small pieces) / egg yolk (cooked and cut into small pieces) / vegetables (clean thoroughly and cut into small pieces. My fish loves broccoli).

2. Change water regularly: If you do not have a filtering system, change one third of the water everyday. Change the water frequently even if you have a filtering system.

3. So long as it is kept indoor, a goldfish will not die simply because of low winter temperature. There is no need to use a heater in the fish tank. Remember not to do anything to change the water tank temperature drastically.

According to a report, the oldest known captive goldfish died in the age of 43. The normal life-span of a goldfish is around 10 years.

A goldfish can recognise its master. It will ask for food when it sees you (that's why it is easy to overfeed your pet!). It will not swim away even if you put your hand into the water tank.

My personal experience is that it is not difficult to breed goldfish at home. The Chinese book "Chinese Goldfish" by Wu & Fu (1983) has detailed and practicable instructions. The problem is to get time to take care of the large number of baby fish!

Episode 54 - Tiger Head

I purchased this goldfish from a pet shop at Prince Edward yesterday.

There are many pet shops at the Prince Edward District, selling goldfish, tropical fish, coral fish, and aquarium products. It was not easy to make a decision as there were so many choices.

Apart from the shops, fish hawkers gather together in a nearby area in the form of a flea market, with locally bred goldfish and tropical fish offering for sale at a very competitive price. These hawkers arrive at the vicinity in the early morning. They leave early as well.

The goldfish I purchased at the pet shop is a young male Tiger Head of Beijing origin. As you can see from the photo, the Tiger Head is in a very good shape.

Judging from its size, this Tiger Head is about 1 year old. This is the best size to start with. If the fish is too young, it is difficult to judge whether it will develop into a good shape. Mature fish with good shape is good but its colour and brightness will diminish as it grows older.

Some people find it difficult to differentiate between the Tiger Heads and the High Heads (also known as the Orandas). In fact, the difference between the two is that the rasberry-like head growth of a High Head stay on top of its head only, like wearing a cap, whereas the growth of a Tiger Head develops further down to its face. The head growth will cover up most of the eyes and the mouth of a Tiger Head when the fish becomes mature. The Tiger Heads are also sometimes mistaken for the Lion Heads. A Lion Head has head growth just like a Tiger Head but the Lion Head is smaller in size and does not have a dorsal fin on the back.

The head growth of a Tiger Head will develop as the fish grows up. The development of the head growth is not easy without feeding live food. Frozen worms are available at the fish shops but they do not appear to be attractive to the goldfish (at least to those in my fish tank!).

The goldfish is of China origin but was brought to the other parts of the world by the businessmen many years ago. These goldfish has been settled down in foreign land with new varieties developed. It is said that the Tiger Head was exported from China to Japan in 1800s. It is known as the Shishigashira Oranda in Japan. Goldfish developed by the Japanese is famous for its regular shapes and colours.

In China, there are 5 major varieties of goldfish: The "Grass", the "Gentle", the "Dragon Eyes", the "Egg" and the "Dragon Back". The Tiger Head and the High Head belong to the "Gentle" variety. The Lion Head as mentioned above belongs to the "Egg" variety.