| sorry kfg never saw this post, ill assume its for fry, that way if i kill all your fry atleast i havent killed your breeders.
mike might be a lot braver than me.
ill let him advise when you can let your big ones go for a good swim.
what i would say is its hard to know or guess with a brand new pond, though do check your water first.
i dont know what everyone else does but if im spawning in the pond, ill fill it up and let it settle for around 3 days for my iron to oxidize out, my waters red to begin with from the bore. you want to let the pond settle and oxygenate.
ill put my koi breeders in after that, say on afternoon 3 after filling, theyll spawn that first night and sometimes i leave em a second night if theyve not done real good with plenty of eggs around.
i remove eggs and replace spawning material. you could probably place eggs directly in pond after spawning/removal if your using the same water to breed thats in your pond. check temp.
they hatch about 4-5 days later (temp dependant) at which time there hopefully is an algae bloom beggining, by the time they are about to eat say around the second day after hatch, there should be rotifers (live feed for them) for first feeding.
if you leave your pond too long there will be organisms around that will eat your tiny koi and most likely less rotifers and things too big to fit in a first feedings kois mouth that will likely prey on rotifers, as the days progress and my fry get bigger, my pond will get bigger zoo planktons in it, that now they can eat as they get a bigger mouth. its inportant to have this timing pretty good for a bumper quick growing batch. but if you stick close to it i thing youll do ok first time round.
it changes from pond to pond (temps and sunlight and whatever affects a bloom) so the susequent zooplankton availablity is affected by these things too.
you should watch the pond for the signs of early life, second time round you can get have a better idea when to stock.
main thing is to try coincide first feed with the availabklity of the first presence of small zooplanktons.
first time round id say dont let it go any more than 5 days before spawning in it, never ten days unless its cold and you shouldnt be spawning anyway. dont want to panic you but a brand new pond might have its own intricacies. for me and if it were my only pond, id stock it with eggs 4-5 days after filling or stock it with free swimming larve hatched larvae about 10-13 days after filling.
you may have that clay thing worrying you.. either tyr some gypsum or better for your first time, pretend its not there, just lime it, and give it ago anyway but you might like to not put your breeders directly in a brand spanking new pond. i assume your water is ok after settling.
i spose youll have to go off someones plan and adjust it to suit you as you get experience with your situation.
if you spawn in tanks or somewhere other than the pond, still breed in time line with this so you can put eggs in or release hatched fry in time for the first feed of rotifers, one thing though if you want to stock in hatched larvae is to watch ph is not too high, ussually stock in the morning and never over 9. also temper your fry with pond water before release. |