Nice job on the water and the pond photos.
Mi pawnd rebild tew
- Thread starter Shdwdrgn
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I hope my plants survive the fish spawning! 
Today is cool with some rain showers, and the comets are going crazy. I have an orange female and a white male which are over 4 years old and are the only survivors of the original inhabitants from my first pond. These two are solely responsible for all the other babies in the pond now, and it shows in the obvious passing of the parent's markings.
A couple years ago we added two shubunkins, one of which has survived (the other one jumped out). Well this year he is all about mating. The female has been giving the males quite a run today, all around the pond, up and down the river, over the rocks and through the plants. One of the new forget-me-nots has born the brunt of the rampage, and has roots hanging out everywhere. After she finally sprays her eggs, I'll have to get in there and replant some things.
Some of the younger males have shown interest in chasing the female, but they can't keep up for long (you can see two smaller white males here, along with the older one, and the shubunkin). However the shubunkin has been keeping up with the older male, trying to push him aside. It'll be interesting to see if he succeeds, although the white male does have a size advantage. I'm rooting for the shubunkin though, because I really like their colors, plus we need some new genes in the pool.
I also added 5 new shubunkins to the pond a couple months ago, which should really help with the gene pool next year. Now I'm just watching for any nice double-tail comets to add. We also got a new completely white (pinkish, maybe albino?) butterfly koi this weekend, and still looking for other variations of them.
It's really a lot of fun watching the fish spawning now. They have so much room to run, and the female can really make those boys work for their prize. They seem completely oblivious to me, so I can set a chair right beside the river and watch them go. Hope to see some babies soon!
Today is cool with some rain showers, and the comets are going crazy. I have an orange female and a white male which are over 4 years old and are the only survivors of the original inhabitants from my first pond. These two are solely responsible for all the other babies in the pond now, and it shows in the obvious passing of the parent's markings.A couple years ago we added two shubunkins, one of which has survived (the other one jumped out). Well this year he is all about mating. The female has been giving the males quite a run today, all around the pond, up and down the river, over the rocks and through the plants. One of the new forget-me-nots has born the brunt of the rampage, and has roots hanging out everywhere. After she finally sprays her eggs, I'll have to get in there and replant some things.
Some of the younger males have shown interest in chasing the female, but they can't keep up for long (you can see two smaller white males here, along with the older one, and the shubunkin). However the shubunkin has been keeping up with the older male, trying to push him aside. It'll be interesting to see if he succeeds, although the white male does have a size advantage. I'm rooting for the shubunkin though, because I really like their colors, plus we need some new genes in the pool.
I also added 5 new shubunkins to the pond a couple months ago, which should really help with the gene pool next year. Now I'm just watching for any nice double-tail comets to add. We also got a new completely white (pinkish, maybe albino?) butterfly koi this weekend, and still looking for other variations of them.
It's really a lot of fun watching the fish spawning now. They have so much room to run, and the female can really make those boys work for their prize. They seem completely oblivious to me, so I can set a chair right beside the river and watch them go. Hope to see some babies soon!
j.w
I Love my Goldies
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Looks like a crazy madhouse in there. Hope nobody gets hurt. I wondered about the continuous breeding myself between all the related fish we keep in our ponds. When do they start getting two heads and such? I need to get some new fish in my pond cuz I'm sure a lot are now related. Your fish look like pretty fish and hopefully w/ the different genes now you will get some more cool looking results
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JW .................ummmmm peeping tom?
" They seem completely oblivious to me, so I can set a chair right beside the river and watch them go"
Looking good there shdwdrgan
" They seem completely oblivious to me, so I can set a chair right beside the river and watch them go"
Looking good there shdwdrgan
j.w
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Ha Ha yes it's fun to watch them chasing and cavorting in there addy.
I wonder if they mind us putting up their sexual situations on the internet...........I mean what if some might want to run for congress someday
I wonder if they mind us putting up their sexual situations on the internet...........I mean what if some might want to run for congress someday
j.w
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Weird thing just happened. I got a notice when I went to post that last post that the post was a duplicate of a post I just posted in the last 5 minutes............what's up w/ that? I didn't make a duplicate post of it..........not unless I'm sckitzo and did it under a different personality
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Sometimes if you hit the post reply button twice, i.e. by mistake it does that. Double clicks happen a lot with clicking, so you may have done that jw a double click. The forum thinks it is the same post being sent twice.
sissy
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You just want to watch them so none jump out in the frenzy .I lost one of my fish a couple of weeks ago .Funny thing none had jumped out in the almost 7 years and then suddenly Snake jumped out .
sissy
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I think it's that dirty mind of yours JW could be Addy's following your footsteps .Pretty soon you 2 will go in business making fish porn movies .LOL
Things are finally calming down. She's looking much thinner now, and there's not quite the mad frenzy as earlier. Judging by the koi nibbling at the plants, I would say she was spraying for a good 6 hours. I'm guessing the only reason she's still being chased is from hormone release.
Anyway, got the plants fixed up, but I'm not seeing any surviving eggs. Guess I'll have to wait for the plants to grow in thicker before there will be many survivors.
Anyway, got the plants fixed up, but I'm not seeing any surviving eggs. Guess I'll have to wait for the plants to grow in thicker before there will be many survivors.
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Maybe a few escaped! keep fingers crossed
Got a couple new koi today. PetSmart is having a nice sale, something like 25% off for the next few weeks, so I'm checking their stock as soon as they come in...
The white one is a butterfly. I saw the hint of black in the store, but once he got out in the sun, the black became more apparent. I'm pretty sure this is a platinum ghost koi, with the butterfly fins as a bonus! We really love the looks of the first ghost koi we got, and he's been growing already. I also picked up another butterfly koi last Friday, which is solid white, but has a very definite pinkishness to him - very much like an albino cory, except he has black eyes. The two butterflies are identical in size and quickly started swimming together today.
The second koi has that same black shading across his back like the ghost koi, however with the black and orange mixed, it has more of a coppery look to it. His bottom half is solid white except for a bit of coloring on his lower fins. The colors were distinctive enough from everyone else in the tank, and the koi already in my pond, that I wanted to add him to the mix.
I'm still on the lookout for a metallic gold koi. I saw a couple before the new pond was ready, but haven't spotted any since. They had a couple today that were close, but the color was too yellow, not really gold. One of these days I'll get some.
The white one is a butterfly. I saw the hint of black in the store, but once he got out in the sun, the black became more apparent. I'm pretty sure this is a platinum ghost koi, with the butterfly fins as a bonus! We really love the looks of the first ghost koi we got, and he's been growing already. I also picked up another butterfly koi last Friday, which is solid white, but has a very definite pinkishness to him - very much like an albino cory, except he has black eyes. The two butterflies are identical in size and quickly started swimming together today.
The second koi has that same black shading across his back like the ghost koi, however with the black and orange mixed, it has more of a coppery look to it. His bottom half is solid white except for a bit of coloring on his lower fins. The colors were distinctive enough from everyone else in the tank, and the koi already in my pond, that I wanted to add him to the mix.
I'm still on the lookout for a metallic gold koi. I saw a couple before the new pond was ready, but haven't spotted any since. They had a couple today that were close, but the color was too yellow, not really gold. One of these days I'll get some.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
That white one in the pic is a Platinum Matsuba, If you ever get to see a large one you you won't forget it! NICE FISH! I've been on the lookout for a nice Matsuba with a pattern like that, Hard to find here. the only fish we seem to get around here that have that kind of pattern are Kujaku. That's kind of like the orange and grey colored one in the pic. Your going to love that fish as it gets big!
Then you would love shopping here... Like I said, now I have two of them (same colors, but one has the butterfly fins and the other has the standard fins), and I'm getting them for around $7 each. It's too bad fish don't ship as safely as plants do, or I'd be happy to pick one up for you.
I haven't found any references yet describing what types of koi are considered rare. Chain stores just mass-breed them, and never look at what they're selling, so its always possible to find run across one that would otherwise be in high demand.
I haven't found any references yet describing what types of koi are considered rare. Chain stores just mass-breed them, and never look at what they're selling, so its always possible to find run across one that would otherwise be in high demand.
Oh, I forgot to mention... my pond is starting to cycle back to a tea color again. Looks like I might have another algae bloom trying to happen. (sigh) I've never had this happen in the past - I get the Spring cycle, then the bacteria in the filter catches up, and the water stays clear for the rest of the year. I was really hoping the water had finally balanced out.