i have the opportunity to bring in some 3 year old top view ranchu. these are the "king" of goldfish and the most respected breed to Japanese fish keepers. the fish are not Japanese, but Thai. Japanese fish would be $300 and up for small fish. these fish are breeders about 4-5" long. i actually raised some of their fry and they were very good quality. Thai fish are usually $50 up to $500's depending on the quality if you can find them, plus shipping.

the fish belong to a friend and are in California, but he will not ship. i will have to drive down to get them. he has 21. they range in quality but are all better fish than i have been able to find under $100, before shipping. i cannot afford to buy them all by myself and cannot keep them all anyway. i would want maybe 6-7. if there are others interested in sharing the cost of about $30-50 each

these are the fish breeding this last year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip_e0YBPHpQ

i will go get them in October�"just in time to let them acclimate to overwinter outdoors (or you can keep them indoors).

it is a rare chance to get top-view ranchu in utah. i have only seen ranchu offered once before at a "reputable" pet store in Davis county. they wanted $60 for what they had labeled Japanese Ranchu. i would not have even called them ranchu. i would have identified them as lionheads and of poor quality at that. definitely not Japanese. as far as i know there is no mass exporting of Japanese Ranchu, period. let alone to a store in Davis county. oh, and they were all brown/green. all Japanese Ranchu are red or red and white (edo nishiki are calico ranchu, but technically a different breed). probably commercial grade Chinese fish (aka what even the chinese won't buy).

my point being, $50 for a full grown goldfish of any breed, save commons, is a good deal. these are better than pet store quality, a breed you cannot buy at a petstore and they will still be less money. i am pretty good at sexing goldfish and will do my best to identify the sex for you if your intent is breeding (my dream would be to get a few people breeding ranchu locally). to breed you really should have at least 2 males and of course a female. the more fish you have the better they breed. i would recommend at least 4 to insure a good spawn. ranchu can hold their own with other goldfish and even koi providing they are not too large.

i won't take money until i bring the fish home, but would need a soft commitment to be confident enough to purchase the lot and bring it back. any interested parties, please send me an email at kendal.liddle@gmail.com and let me know how many. if i get them it will sort them by quality and divide the price and then it will be first come first served or we can do a lottery for picking order or whatever works best.

please spread the word to anybody you think might be interested.

thanks,

kendal