Fry progress report

[fishin4cars]

James, Do you know what the parents looked like? (Of your adult fish) I saw you had some really nice koi that appeared some could have been true bloodline koi. If so you'll probably see that gene as one of the more dominate, if they are domestic breed, possibilities are endless. I've seen linage koi (True Kohaku both from great grand parents parents and then the young would still have mix colors in there as well but probably 40% where kohaku offspring.) They culled anything with brown are un-crisp colors. I think you should wait until at least .5-1 inch in length before you start culling, First thing I would want to cull would be deformities for sure. next would be solid subded colors. By that point you should be able to really start picking and choosing the ones that really catch the eye! You should end up with a good # of nicely colored fry! Nice parents!

 

[fishin4cars]

Do you know which is the male and which is the female? I'm guessing the Kujaku the male and the Kohaku the female?:bye2:

 

[sissy]

jw little boogers geeze:lol::bye2::lol:that can be it as they are social fish and need that interaction jameskoi .Gosh you are going to have a ton of those little guys or gals .

 

[jameskoi]

fihin4cars: Yes, I think the Kohaku is a female. At first I thought the Kujaku (thx for naming him) was the female. I'm terrible when it comes to sexing koi. I didn't even pay too much attention when dropping them into the 130G to remember body size. It looked like the kujaku got skinnier so I assumed it was the female. Then, I looked up their anuses and realized, the Kohaku has much bigger one if that even mattered. haha... Then, I realized the kohaku was missing a bunch of scales on side of its body and was somewhat beaten up. Kujaku suffered no damage so I figure the kohaku is the female. Phew... Long explanation.

Unfortunately, the parents are the worse of the bunch in terms of quality. Kohaku is an import and the Kujaku is domestic. It did have orange blotches on top in the beginning. All gone as you can see.

Any idea what may turn up now or your first write up remains unchanged? Oh, I think you're asking me the parents of the Kohaku and Kujaku, right? No idea whatsoever.

Thanks...

sissy: I figure ~30 koi in my pond, they wouldn't care too much about me. I guess I could be wrong. hehe... I'm amazed how they turned out too in 2 years. I was way over stocked since the beginning, even with 30 little ones. I expected them to grow but not this fast. The pond looked so empty in the beginning. Looking at the video, I'm like wow... this pond does look way overstocked but they're doing perfectly fine. :bye2:

 

[fishin4cars]

I was taught one of the first things to look at on large koi are the pectoral fins, males tend to be slightly more pointed, females more round, that was correct on your two from the pics. Second was the extended belly region just behind the head, this is where the largest part of the egg sack is located. (Bet you took that pic 1-3 months before they laid) Just guessing...lol The knot on the head would normally be more of a male characteristic, but it is not suppose to be 100 true. From what I have read and seen I think your assumption on the missing scales is probably the biggest clue, My goldfish females get pretty beaten up everytime too. Largest hump headed fish I have seen so far was also a female, So I wonder about that trait some. As for what your going to get, Lets just say I will be just as interested as you in seeing what you get. All the ones I have gotten so far were raised in the pond in the bog plant area so I let nature do the culling and left me what survived....I was never able to determine what Koi breed I just found the eggs one morning after a morning rain and moved them to a protected area with no fish to see what would happen and what they were.

 

[jameskoi]

Thanks for the info. I'm curious myself. This thread will get plenty of updates whenever there is something news worthy. The only thing I really know is touch the gill plates. Tactic was useless for those two.

BTW, those pics were taken a few hours ago. So ~8 days after the spawn. lol

 

[fishin4cars]

LOL, I'm wrong on that one! :bye2:

 

[RSFish1]

I love the gill plate technique especially around breeding time. If it feels like they need a shave, then it is a male. But the belly region is the first thing I look for. I always joke with my customers that if the hips start to get wide, then you know it's a woman. :bowdown:

 

[sissy]

uh oh now thats not nice women all around the world will take offense to that shame on you .:lol::lol::lol::bowdown::nono:

 

[RSFish1]

I know. (bows head in shame) The husbands always smile and laugh shortly followed by the wife smacking them.

 

[sissy]

SMACK ooopps sorry hand slipped

 

[jameskoi]

LOL, I'm wrong on that one! :bowdown:

No worries.. haha

I'm so bad at this, I wasn't even sure who dropped the eggs after the spawn in the beginning.

Anyway, not much to report right now. Fry getting bigger by the day.

I noticed submersible pump, even with nylon stocking is trapping poor fry. I thought they were just dying ones that gets trapped. Turns out, when some get too close, their tails get sucked into the netting and remain stuck until they go kaput. I must have lost hundreds a day b/c of that.. I made some modifications last night.

Raised pump to surface level and put pump inside fish breeder net basket. Works like a charm. Will post pic later for people who want to stick with submersible pump for heavy duty filtration and for the lazies who don't want to do water changes everyday. It works great now... But I killed some while doing it. Way too many fry swimming around.

Fry population still visually looks unchanged. Perhaps b/c they all gotten much bigger, but I can still estimate 2000+.

Also, I should have at least 300 in my 60G.. Maybe upwards of 500, which means 130G should contain way more than 2000+... Just too hard to estimate. haha

 

[talal101]

hi james,
will you be selling any koi when they get larger?, i would love one that has kohaku markings.

 

[jameskoi]

talal101: yes... I plan to sell all of them in the future. I still plan on shutting down my basement pond. Just a delay right now with accidental spawning. When they're ready (I'm guessing in 1-1.5 years), I will sell.

 

[talal101]

Wow 1-1.5 years, is there any koi that you can sell now?