[bekko]

They started hatching last night and were about finished by the end of the day. Lost at least another 10% to fungus - maybe 15%. Not a big loss because it looks like I will have more fry than I have space and plankton for.

Since the spawning was 2-3 weeks later than anticipated, my plankton production is sort of screwed up. All but one of the small ponds (6-8 mt each) set up for a bloom at the end of last month were too old and had to be restarted. One that crached early had re-bloomed on its own and has a healthy population of rotifers. Luckily, a tosai pond had become really green and I had not taken the time to deal with it. So, every day I have been dumping an over-mature plankton pond, refilling with green water from the tosai pond, and innoculating with rotifers. It is going to be really close, but there might be enough rotifers to get the fry started when they begin feeding on Sunday (hopefully) or Monday. I will be innoculating a green water pond with Moina tomorrow in hopes that it will be ready towards the middle of next week when the fry are ready for something a bit larger.

Here is a fry photo:


This one is typical. You can see the beginnings of a stomach and intestine above the yolk sack. I am not positive about the thing that looks like a Happy Face just above the left gill, but suspect it is the beginnings of an otolith (earbone). Need a dorsal view to say for sure.

I haven't looked at a koi fry in about nine months, and it may be my imagination, but the yolk reserve looks really small. I hope it can last long enough to get them on solid food.

No pad on the head ranskye. I watched some in a beaker today and cannot figure out how they hold themselves in position, but they usually sit right-side up. Like you say, it may just be a sticky surface on the belly.

-steve