Pinky Bristols on the Way!

Pinky Bristols on the Way!

I have a confession to make… I’ve never owned any single-tail goldfish before!  😡  But I’ve admired bristol shubunkins from afar for quite a while.  The bristol shubunkin standard calls for a fish with calico coloration, and I tend not to like calicos much in general.  I just think the color pattern is too distracting from the beautiful shape and contour of the body and fins.  Just my personal preference.  So I prefer the solid colored bristols or the blue calicos (lacking red pigment).  But after stumbling across this photo online of some pure white matte bristols, my full attention was captured!

These are called “pinkies”.  The term pinky just refers to any type of goldfish that is completely matte (has little to no reflective guanine in its skin).  This causes them to have black button eyes and “blushing” gill covers, since you can see through the gill covers to their red gills underneath.  Because the scales have no guanine, they are completely matte and non-reflective.  Pinkies are almost always culled very early on because they’re seen as undesirable.  Personally though, I think they’re beautiful!  Especially when paired with the strong, elegant body and flowing fins of the bristol shubunkin.  So my search for some pinky bristols began.  Ideally I wanted some that were pure white like in the photo above, but I knew this might be a long shot.  I asked around and finally found a breeder (Gary Hater) who had four pinky bristols he would part with.  Most of them have some blue markings, a few black streaks here-and-there, and one has an orange stripe.  But they are close enough, and I hope to breed them to eventually reach my ideal of the pure white pinky bristol shubunkin.  Here’s the video Gary sent me of the four pinkies I’m getting.  I’ve added arrows pointing out which fish I’m getting since there are several fish that swim past the camera.  These four were spawned in December, making them about 8 months old right now.  The blue calico bristol you see at three seconds in is the mother.  I’m so excited!  They’ll be shipped on August 19th to arrive on August 21st.  I’m going to move Luca, Felix, and Clover into my empty 55 gallon tank so bristols can have the space they need in my 75 gallon tank.  Stay tuned for updates!  Many thanks, Gary!

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJdtaTb8G-w

Do any of you guys own single-tail goldfish? What variety do you have and what do you like about them?

2 Comments

  • Jakie Chang Posted May 8, 2023 6:37 am

    Where can I contact Gary hater? I want to buy some pinkies too! But if you are selling some of yours that you spawning please let me know !

  • Terence Park Posted August 18, 2023 1:29 am

    Congratulations on finding and acquiring the pinkies. The ones in the photo have a Clover-esque coloring to me. I’m not a huge fan of Calicos, but I do love the splash of blue that some have. I’m actually looking for a Calico Ranchu at this moment to be my first goldfish. Hoping it has alot of blue in the future. I’m really excited, but also really scared. Lol. Actually seeing a Shubukin Goldfish is what really got me interested in goldfish. I soon learned though that the single tails need alot of room…

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *