| Just some additional thoughts. Most males when active physically in the spring in anticipation of proceation will have sandpaper feeling gill plates.
this spring check these koi please.
many professional breeders keep parent stock separated. females in one pond and males in another. in this situation I find the sandpaper effect less existant. in ponds with both sexes the sand paper feeling is more apparent.
After spawning I have some of my males that the entire body is course
and rough in addition to the gill plates and with 48 hrs returns back to "normal".
I am not aware of a male fertility shot, just female to rapidly ripen the eggs. ( I do know of one breeder who thinking his ginrin cha was ready to
spawn continually shot her until he discovered it was a male) I don't think he'll ever live that one down. to look at the koi I must confess that it looked female.
One thing many are not aware of, a good spawning male is not necesarily
one that is built like a show fish. Many times hobbyists will try and breed their koi to rid a female of eggs. The males are so obese and out of shape they don't co=operate. because they can't because they are in bad shape physically.
if it were me I'd try and carefully squeeze some milt out and if no luck
slip them out in a healthy grow pond.
I hope some of my thoughts might be helpful.... |