Our Introduction to Breeding Pearlscales.
The Ping Pong Pearlscale journey started approximately seven years ago, with a male Pearlscale obtained from the local pet store. He was originally sourced from Singapore and exhibited an excellent shape but only a single anal fin. The female we acquired from an online store. She was of Thai origin and displayed a shape similar to Malaysian Pearlscales, though not as wide as our modern Pearlscales. She had a fused caudal fin but double anal fins leading us to believe that the resulting fry will have both double anal fins and a split caudal fin if we cull correctly.Â
As expected the spawn culminated in six appealing Pearlscales with satisfactory fins, with one taking first place at the Bristol Aquatic Society Show 2019, though the lack of competitors made the victory somewhat straightforward. This first spawn led me to ponder the future direction of my breeding program and prompted questions about what we wanted to breed for in subsequent generations. The fish were predominantly orange nacreous with black markings that faded over time which lacked allure and distinctiveness. So to provide stronger, more fascinating colourations we selected metallic fish in the next generation, hoping that accomplishing a vibrant colour in metallic goldfish might be more achievable compared to nacreous variants.
The most attractive female in the F1 spawn was bred to the father goldfish as his shape was far superior, compared to the male siblings. This spawn resulted in lots of fry but only one metallic that we deemed suitable to carry on the line. It was a female with great fins and an acceptable shape, although nowhere near the round quality of the previous generation. After demelanizing, it’s colour was a vivid deep orange which compensated for the shape. This also helped prove our theory that metallics, from a nacreous lineage prone to losing black pigment, would also lose melanin.
The ensuing metallic journey descended into a disaster worthy of it's own post. Keep following this blog to find out what happened!
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