Jikin goldfish?

[EricV]

At first I didnt want to spend the money. But I fund that they are hard to find at the local store. If I find nice looking shubunkin at the store that I like then I bought them (in fact I bought about 5 of them). I bought online for specific colors and type and since now i want watonai, which is very hard to find and are not sold in store, I have no choice but to buy online. And if the fish is pretty and unusual, i tend to closed my eyes when i hit the 'buy' button (3 of them from rain garden and a few from Blackwater creek) I'd make an excuse like it's my birthday or Christmas gift to myself lol. I also like to know the sex of the fish because i simply like to raise the babies with different color patterns from the parents, to see how they come out. I dont have a lot of fish so i know all of my fish.

In some sense, worrying about the money is silly. Even though I did the pond myself, I've so far put over $5K into it if you include the landscaping. I spent $40 on a lotus plant. Why not have some $50 goldfish that I really enjoy.

 

[MoonShadows]

Did you see the Jikin? Normal body shape but with interesting tail like a tutu. I'm not into big heads and stuff too, they are pretty but not my thing

Yes, I did see them...not a bad looking fish...but, the ones that looked like they were out of an old Star Trek show made me forget about those ones.

 

[Nepen]

In some sense, worrying about the money is silly. Even though I did the pond myself, I've so far put over $5K into it if you include the landscaping. I spent $40 on a lotus plant. Why not have some $50 goldfish that I really enjoy.

lol. exactly. I spent so much money on plants around the pond too I'm now trying to buy seeds instead so to save money and get more variate and make sure the flowers are not spray with chemical to kill the bees.

To get to one of your question as how different the fish from the store or the expensive online ones.. the online we can choose which farm we get the fish from and we can read up on their treatment of fish. I feel that the fish from raingarden are more confirm to the specific of the type of fish and seem to be healthier when i received them than when i got fish from the store. Most of the time i see fish at store they are sad, have clamp fins, have difficulty swimming, or swimming with other dead fish around... just too risky to bring them to my pond even though i do have indoor tank to hold them or quarantine them but I just don't want the risk.

 

[Nepen]

Yes, I did see them...not a bad looking fish...but, the ones that looked like they were out of an old Star Trek show made me forget about those ones.

lol. They do have a lot of those fancies and even though they are not my type of fish, they are sure pretty!

 

[Faebinder]

oh! that's great. How are they faring in the cold? Where did you get them? do you have any picture? do you think they are slower or about the same as watonai?

I have one watonai from the rain garden. Zhao's jinkins are bigger. They became part of the pond very quickly. More active than many of my fish and very pretty.

I'll take pictures this weekend it will be warmer.

 

[addy1]

lol. exactly. I spent so much money on plants around the pond too I'm now trying to buy seeds instead so to save money and get more variate and make sure the flowers are not spray with chemical to kill the bees.

.

Try to get non gmo seeds and neonick free seeds.
Here is a site I use to buy seeds from.

http://www.americanmeadows.com/search/go?w=bee friendly

 

[Faebinder]

Those of you that are buying these $50-100 goldfish... Do you really feel they are better than what you can find patiently scouting your local pond stores? In my case, I'm talking about "normal" shaped fish (comets, shubunkins). I'm also not interested in fish with extra fins or strangely shaped body parts.

Yes absolutely healthier. Black water creek, dandy oranda are worth the additional money. The fish are much healthier. The color selection is better. I can't find those triple colored comets from dandy oranda or blackwater creek anywhere else.

Having said that I understand being afraid of paying for fish in a pond where there is danger in losing it. I net my pond for that reason.

 

[addy1]

I net against herons, other than that critters have access. We are in their flight path, without the anti heron netting they would wipe out my pond. They landed everyday for almost two years until I did the wide weave high hung net. That finally stopped them. They still fly over every day, morning and evening.

 

[MitchM]

I can understand about paying higher than average prices for a fish.

I watched a documentary the other day about arowanas.
The price paid for some of those fish are astronomical, but the fish obviously gave the owners a lot of pleasure and peace.
I kind of envied their enjoyment of a singular species.
My fish are one part of an overall ecosystem, which I enjoy.

.

 

[Tula]

I've only paid extra for one of my four koi, the others are from a local fish hatchery. I wanted a certain kind of koi and I'd do it again, if I had the room.

 

[Gemma]

I said I'm not going to add any more fish to my pond even though I have the room now, cause I'm too afraid of losing these 12 that I have, due to over croweding .....but you guys are making it very hard to resist temptation

 

[Faebinder]

Here are the two jinkins from zhao.

The watanoi from the rain garden is there but it's young imo. I don't know the age of each.

Some of the Fish are eating today

Picture 4 shows the two jinkins with a bubble eye in between with a celestial to the other side of the picture.

Picture 9 shows the huge comet and koi. Next to them you will see jinkin and near by on the other side is the watanai and the celestial.

The next to last picture shows a big comet and across from it is a jinkin and near it is a watanai.

The watanai from the rain garden is of similar color to the jinkin... on purpose I like that pattern... yellow head white body and red highlights.

 

[Mmathis]

Rainwater also has a profile on them. If you're wondering about breeding, I would think [not know] that after a while, unless you kept them separate, all the GF will interbreed and eventually you're back to the basic GF type. But then, you could come up with some interesting gene combinations! They are pretty! Where is this place located?

 

[Faebinder]

Zhao set his stuff up in Georgia I believe. The Nankin he has are pretty but I try not to go that high for a fish.

 

[Mmathis]

Those of you that are buying these $50-100 goldfish... Do you really feel they are better than what you can find patiently scouting your local pond stores? In my case, I'm talking about "normal" shaped fish (comets, shubunkins). I'm also not interested in fish with extra fins or strangely shaped body parts.

It depends on what you are looking for in a fish. I would like to think that these more pricy fish are healthier, with better genetics, but who can really say for sure. I like a type of GF called a Watonai, which has the body type of a comet, but with a pretty double tail -- not a fish you can find in the local pet stores, so you have to buy from a breeder. It's a very hardy "pond" fish, but just not a lot of them out there.