Shubunkin in the pond. Shubunkin goldfish (carassius auratus)

Shubunkin fish - bright and handsome rep the Karasev family. This inhabitant of a domestic reservoir is absolutely unpretentious and very hardy. Shubunkins are goldfish. Even a novice aquarist can handle them. In the article, we will consider in detail the conditions for keeping and breeding this fish, as well as its compatibility with other individuals.

general characteristics

Shubunkin fish, or calico is not found in wild nature. It was bred artificially in the selection process. This breed of goldfish was created in Japan in 1900. In Europe, shubunkins began to be kept in aquariums only from the 1920s.

Almost all breeders note the beautiful, bright coloring and unpretentiousness of Shubunkins. The description of the fish can be found in many aquarium manuals. It is reported in the literature that shubunkins grow up to 15 cm. However, calicos reach such dimensions only when good conditions content and in a properly selected aquarium. In a cramped tank, fish can only grow up to 10 cm. In Japan, shubunkins are bred in artificial ponds, in such a spacious habitat, their body length reaches 20 cm.

Appearance

Multi-colored spots scattered over the body are distinctive feature this breed of goldfish. Shubunkins have a wide variety of colors. Specks can be yellow, blue, white, red or black. Individuals with spots of blue and purple hue are especially valued. Because of the bright and colorful body, Shubunkins are called chintz comets. The final color of the spots is formed only by 3 years.

Most goldfish have a round body shape. Shubunkin is somewhat different in appearance from his relatives. Its body is elongated, oblong and slightly compressed laterally. The fins are large and large, and the tail is forked. Unlike most goldfish, calicos have very thin and transparent scales that are almost invisible.

Shubunkin fish reach maturity at about 2 to 3 years. Their life expectancy is about 10 - 15 years. However, there have been cases when fish lived for 20 years or more. Such longevity is quite possible with comfortable conditions of detention and good care.

Gender differences

Male and female Shubunkin are very difficult to distinguish from each other. Male and female fish have the same appearance. Sexual differences become noticeable only during spawning. During this period, convex white spots appear on the male's head and gills. The body of the female is rounded due to the gestation of eggs. Outside of spawning, it is almost impossible to determine the sex of the Shubunkin.

Consider the features of the content of shubunkins. Fish of this breed are quite unpretentious, but space is very important for them. Crowding adversely affects their growth and development. In order for Calico to feel comfortable, the following conditions must be created for them:

1. Space in the aquarium. Shubunkins are quite mobile, so they need a lot of space. The volume of the aquarium for their maintenance should be at least 100 liters. When choosing it, preference should be given to rectangular tanks. In round aquariums, the fish see poorly and grow worse.
2. Good filtration and aeration of water. Buy a powerful filter from an aquarium store. Shubunkins love to dig in the ground and often create a lot of turbidity in the water. You need to take care of buying a quality aerator. Calico are unpretentious and very hardy, but they do not tolerate the lack of oxygen well.
3. The absence of heat and the purity of the water. Shubunkins are considered cold-loving fish. They do not do well in excessively warm conditions. Optimum temperature in an aquarium for fish should be from +20 to +23 degrees. Calicos are not very sensitive to the purity of the liquid. However, it is recommended to change the water in the tank by 1/5 part weekly.
4. Ground safety and design elements. Calico can swallow small stones. These grains get stuck in their stomach and lead to the death of the fish. To eliminate such a danger, only coarse gravel or sand can be used as soil. Do not put sharp snags in the aquarium, this can cause injury to the fins.
5. Lots of strong plants. Shubunkin fish loves to live near the ground and dig up the roots of algae. At the same time, calicos feel comfortable in a well-landscaped aquarium. Therefore, it is necessary to plant a large number of aquatic plants with strong leaves and roots.
6. Daylight. Shubunkins love natural sunlight Therefore, the aquarium is best placed on the windowsill. It is very important to ensure that the water does not overheat, as the heat is detrimental to the calico. Natural light can be replaced with artificial, but the lamp must be bright enough and burn for about 8-12 hours a day.

Food

gold fish Kaliko is very voracious, but at the same time almost omnivorous. Shubunkin nutrition should be complete, but overeating should never be allowed. Excessively abundant food leads to obesity, which significantly shortens the life of goldfish. Therefore, the insatiability of Shubunkins must be limited. The volume of the daily diet should be approximately equal to 3% of the weight of the fish.

As the main food, it is best to use special prepared foods designed for cold-loving and goldfish:

• Tetra Animin Goldfish Colour.
• Sera Goldy Gran.
• Sera Goldy Nature.

These types of food are produced in the form of flakes and pellets that sink to the bottom of the aquarium. This is especially convenient, since shubunkins often dig in the ground. Ready-made dry food should be given to fish in small quantities, since an abundance of such food can provoke digestive problems.

You should not limit your diet to just prepared foods. The fish menu should be diversified with live food, for example, bloodworms, earthworms, tubifex. Shubunkins eat greens with pleasure. They can be given fresh leaves lettuce or cabbage.

Calico fish should be fed twice a day - in the morning and in the evening. It is necessary to ensure that all food is eaten within 10 - 20 minutes. If there is some food left, it must be removed from the aquarium immediately. While eating food, shubunkins heavily pollute the water, as they like to get food from the ground.

Compatibility

Shubunkin prefers to live in a pack. This fish does not like being alone. Therefore, 4-6 individuals should be immediately launched into the aquarium.

Calico is a fairly peaceful fish with a calm character. It should not be kept together with aggressive aquarium inhabitants. The following types of fish are not suitable as neighbors for shubunkins:

• barbs;
• angelfish;
• cockerels;
• zebrafish.

Such species of fish can nibble on the long and lush fins of shubunkins. Bottom catfish should not be kept together with calico. Both fish like to spend time near the ground and can perceive each other as competitors.

Together with calico, you should not keep fry and small species of fish. Shubunkins may take them for food and swallow them.

Ideal neighbors for calicos are other breeds of goldfish and koi. These inhabitants of the aquarium also love cool water.

Shubunkin is a type of goldfish that originated in Japan. In Japanese, her name sounds like shibunkin. And the sound that is familiar to us today - shubunkin - is the result of the passage of the word through European languages. In Europe, for the first time, the fish appeared after the First World War, from where it was imported to Russia and the Slavic countries.

In terms of body shape, the Shubunkin is an ordinary goldfish. The fins resemble another kind of goldfish - a comet.

Body length up to 16 - 18 centimeters. Caudal fin, as a rule, not forked, forked. The main distinguishing feature of this breed is transparent scales, which is why it is sometimes called scaleless. And variegated coloration, which is dominated by red, yellow, black and blue colors. The most valuable specimens of shubunkin have a coloration in which blue colors predominate. The blue color in the color appears only in the second - third year of life.

To the conditions of keeping shubunkin as a form close to natural look not very demanding. Water hardness up to 15°dH. Active reaction pH 7 - 8. Temperature 15 - 25 ° С. Due to the ability to withstand enough low temperatures shubunkin is suitable for keeping in ornamental ponds in greenhouses. Much more trouble, like all goldfish, the July heat can deliver to him. The aquarium is desirable spacious - at least 70 liters for two fish. It is highly desirable to artificially aerate the water and install a filter in the aquarium with a capacity of at least two and a half volumes per hour. Since the fish, like all their relatives, love to dig in the ground, while raising a large amount of turbidity. The soil is desirable fine and medium fractional. Plants are desirable fast growing or with a very rigid leaf blade. Otherwise, the voracious shubunkin will quickly leave his pond without vegetation. Keep better with other types of goldfish.

Feed Shubunkin, like other goldfish, you can use bloodworms, earthworms, cereals, vegetable dressings - chopped lettuce leaves, scalded with boiling water and chopped cabbage leaves.

Male Shubunkin slimmer than the female and has notches in the form of a saw on the first ray of the pectoral fins, as well as in the pre-spawning and spawning period, a “pearl scattering” of small, the size of a semolina grain, white growths appears on the gill covers. The female has a fuller belly stuffed with caviar.

Spawning ground about 100 liters. Spawning usually takes place in the spring. Spawning is stimulated by fresh water soft water and an increase in water temperature by 3–5°С. Starter ball for fry of rotifers, brine shrimp. It is advisable to sort the growing fry by size and, if possible, immediately discard fry that do not correspond to the breed.

Otherwise, keeping, feeding and breeding Shubunkin does not differ from .

Other names: Cyprinus auratus, Carassius chinensis; English: Sarasa comet, Goldfish, Gold crucian carp, Golden carp; German: Goldfish

Detachment, family: cyprinids

Range: breeding form of the Chinese silver carp.

Dimensions: 15-20 cm.

Description: A long-bodied type of goldfish. Feature is a long tail, the length of which often exceeds the length of the body. The tail has two rays, forming a kind of fork. The pectoral and pelvic fins can also often be elongated. Its large size makes it more suitable for keeping in ponds than in an aquarium.

Sex differences: males have a more slender body, notches on the pectoral fins. Also, during the mating season, white tubercles (tubercles) appear in males - growths along the pectoral fins and gill covers, in females the body shape becomes more asymmetric due to a swollen abdomen.

Recommended parameters: water temperature 15-25 °C; dH 6-18°; pH 6.0-8.0. Feeding: Goldfish are omnivorous and very voracious. The diet should contain plant and live foods in equal proportions. It must be remembered that when feeding with dry food, they should be given in small portions, since getting into the humid environment of the esophagus, the food swells and can cause a disruption in the normal functioning of the digestive organs of the fish. Despite the good appetite of goldfish, they need to be overfed. Adult fish are fed no more than 2 times a day. Optimally - in the morning and in the evening.

Breeding: comets become sexually mature at the age of 1.5-2 years. A couple of weeks before spawning, males and females are separated. Before planting, producers arrange a hungry day. The stimulus for spawning is fresh, softer water, an increase in the water temperature in the spawning area by 3-5 degrees (the initial water temperature is about 24 degrees). The ratio of fish during spawning is based on one female for two males. At the end of spawning, producers are removed from the spawning grounds. The larva appears after about two days. On the 4-5th day, the fry are already able to swim. Starter feed « living dust”, as they grow up, transfer to larger animal feed (cyclops, daphnia). Fish grow unevenly, fry should be sorted by size.

Compatibility: peaceful, calm fish.

Additional information: A comet is a long-bodied goldfish with a tail that sometimes exceeds the length of the body. The longer the fins, the higher the value of the breed. The color is bright red or red-white. Preference is given to fish with fins and bodies of different colors.

Other characteristics

Appearance, history of breeding goldfish "Shubunkin"

Shubunkin or "calico" - a kind of goldfish artificially bred by breeding certain breeds of aquarium "goldfish". This variety came to Russia from Europe, despite the fact that it was bred at the beginning of the 20th century in Japan. In the early 1920s, the London Shubunkin breed was bred in Great Britain, due to its extreme popularity in this country. This breed is very similar to the common goldfish. Later, in 1934 in Bristol, in the Bristol Aquarium Society, a breed was bred, which received the corresponding name - the Bristol Shubunkin. The breed standard distinguished it as elongated with well-developed fins. The American version of this breed is the Cambridge Shubunkin. It is dominated by a blue tint over all the others, and there is also a slight black speck.

This fish is called "scaleless fish" because of the transparent scales. It is also distinguished by an exceptional variegated color, variably consisting of dark red, black, yellow and brown, and even blue spots. All this beauty of the fish is steadily passed on to offspring. The color of the fish appears after the first year of life, and sometimes later. This fish has a dorsal fin. It seems to be the only goldfish with a blue, sometimes even purple hue. Breeders from Japan liked its color, as a result of which they bred on this basis hybrid breeds that received the prefix "calico", such as "calico oranda", "calico telescope", etc. Size reaches medium - about 15 cm.

Conditions of keeping and behavior of golden fish "Shubunkin" in the aquarium

The average aquarium for keeping most breeds of goldfish should hold about 200 liters, at the rate of 50 liters per individual. Perhaps the neighborhood with the same peaceful fish species. The temperature in the aquarium should be average - 18-23 ° C, although the permissible temperature Range slightly wider - 15-25 °C, water hardness index - 6-18, pH - 5.0-8.0. They need heating in winter purely symbolic, in case they turn it off central heating, but in the summer heat, serious problems can arise. Like all goldfish, the shubunkin is a rather weedy fish. It eats a lot, because it is not small and clogs the aquarium too quickly. Therefore, it must be provided with a good, powerful filtration and aeration system, as well as regular partial water changes will not be superfluous at all. These fish are very fond of digging, therefore, such that when digging it, a cloud of silt and waste products does not rise. Rounded gravel or light-colored pebbles are suitable, as well as coarse sand so that the fish do not injure the body and fins. Very much these fish love to feast on tender-leaved plants, so the flora must be selected with hard leaves and strong root system. Only such plants will survive in this environment. It will not be superfluous to cover the roots of these plants with pebbles to protect them, which will also serve as an additional coloring of the aquarium. Lighting is selected bright, emphasizing the reflection of the scales of these fish.

How to feed a goldfish "Shubunkin"

In food, these are also not whimsical, like all representatives of the decorative ancestors of the common crucian. Feeding is standard: in the morning and in the evening, with vegetable and animal feed, without overfeeding, and removing the remnants of uneaten food 10 minutes after feeding the food to the aquarium. Beneficial effect on them fasting days, in extreme cases even weeks. If the fish shows signs of overfeeding, swims obliquely, add a teaspoon of table salt to the aquarium, there are also medicinal supplements for various goldfish.

Reproduction "shubunkin" in the aquarium

Spawning in this breed is quite common, as for all breeds of goldfish. These fish reach sexual maturity at 3 years of age. The first sign will be the behavior of males - with an increase daylight hours and warming average temperature, somewhere in March-April they have a pearl rash on the gill covers, they also have pectoral fins with a “file”. For spawning, a small aquarium of about 50 liters is taken, fresh water in it must be heated to about 10 ° C to stimulate spawning. 1 female and several males mature enough for this process are planted in it. Then the rut begins, which lasts several hours. One female throws about 10,000 eggs, scattering them throughout the aquarium and on plants.

How to feed fry of goldfish "Shubunkin"

After a few days, the fry begin to move, and after 5-6 they are already able to feed on "live dust". Over time, they need to be transferred to specialized food for goldfish fry, which are sold in abundance in stores. For more information about purchased feed, see.

Ivanov Evgeny Vladimirovich

Hello, friends! Today we will digress from the study of the cichlid family and get acquainted with the beautiful carp. It's about the Shubunkin goldfish, which the Japanese called Kaliko. The Shubunkin goldfish is a breeding form of CARASSIUS AURATUS.

Description and sexual dimorphism

Unlike ordinary crucian carp, Shubunkin has longer fins and transparent scales. The caudal fin is two-lobed and rather large. The most interesting thing about this goldfish is its coloring. Her attire is yellow, blue, red and white. Very often, Calico is called the "Calico" goldfish.

Most of all in the price are those fish that have a blue or purple color in color. These colors usually appear by the age of three. In addition to the standard Shubunkin, there is also a species that has a shorter body and a high dorsal fin. The Japanese liked the calico manner of coloring so much that they dressed telescopes, oranda and veiltail in such colors. All the resulting hybrids received the prefix calico in the name. The maximum length of the fish in aquarium conditions is 20 centimeters.

Shubunki goldfish - conditions of detention

Calico are considered calm inhabitants of the aquarium, therefore, as neighbors, they need to settle fish with the same morals. For one pair of fish, it is recommended to get a 100 liter tank where they will feel quite comfortable. If you have a large volume, then the number of residents can be slightly increased. For example, up to 4 fish can be placed in a 150-liter jar, and up to 6 in a 200-liter jar.

However, as the numbers increase, you will need to increase the intensity as well. Why I don't like scrofula, because they love to poke around and raise dregs. In order not to give them such an opportunity, the substrate must be large, for example, small pebbles or granotsev.

It is preferable to keep scrofula in species aquariums with a large number of strong ones with a powerful root system (, magnolia vine,). The fish gets along well with small characins (,), as well as with the orderlies of the aquarium (,).

Calico is not demanding on the composition of aquarium water and can feel great in water with the following indicators:

• Temperature: 15-30 degrees;
• Hardness: 8 to 25 dH;
• Acidity: 6 to 8 pH

Since Shubunkins are real pigs, you will have to change the water in the aquarium often. In feeding, the fish is unpretentious and perfectly eats both live food and plant food. I would like to warn you, Calicos are very voracious, so do not overfeed them. You need to feed them twice a day, but not much. On average, in one sitting, pets should eat all the food within 10-20 minutes. And all the remaining uneaten food from the aquarium must be removed, otherwise there will be excess organic matter, which can begin to rot. If your fish receive a complete and balanced diet, then they can withstand a week of fasting. This is especially true if you are going on vacation or a business trip. About how to leave the aquarium during the holidays, you can.

Shubunkin reproduction

Almost all scrofula can spawn in a separate 20-30 liter spawning tank. A sandy substrate is placed in it and small-leaved aquarium plants are planted. For breeding, one female and several three-year-old males are placed in the spawning ground. Producers need to be kept separate from each other for several weeks before spawning.

The water temperature in the spawning aquarium should be between 24-26 degrees. The stimulus for spawning is a gradual increase in water temperature by 5-10 degrees. The quick movements of the males around the females serve as a signal of readiness for breeding to the aquarist. At this point, the females lose their eggs, which mainly fall on the leaves of aquarium plants. At a time, the female can sweep away up to 10,000 eggs.

At the end of spawning, the producers are removed from the aquarium so that they do not eat all the eggs. Live dust can serve as a starting food for fry. In addition, specialized food for small goldfish, such as Sera Mikron, can be added to the diet of young animals.