Asagi Breeding 2004

[dick benbow]

Thanks Kiky for your comments. After she gets settled I will get a pic posted. I fed her wheat germ this morning and she was all over it. Everytime I approach the pond she's the first koi I look for and when I see her she brings the biggest smile to my face. No doubt abouut it, she's my pride and joy!

am off to the blueberry farm soon to check on the kohakus and rest of the babies.

[dick benbow]

Well the kohaku's spawned. I couldn't believe how little the female looks now. lots and lots of eggs. should be tuesday evening and I should get word that we have babies.

the shiro babies are now up to and inch and a half. the asagi babies up to
a half an inch.

every gallon of available grow ponds are being used and I will have to skip breeding the ochiba and matsukawabake's this year

the showa babies and shiro's are getting a mottling pattern of grayishish
brown and white.

I had never bred asagi babies before. they're real gray at birth and was surprised Sunday to see then yellowing up.

It seems that all the smallest babies hang at the surface among the plants
and the bigger toby sized ones cruise the bottom. not seeing the clouds of daphnia a few weeks earlier so you know the babies are keeping the schools thinned pretty good.

got to look at a tosai asagi from a breeding last year here in the U.S. from
Quality koi. It was being shipped to Spokane and came thru Seatac airport. The owner was there to pick it up and I was very impressed with the koi. Saw a pic of the mom and she is really pretty. Anyone who hasn't met Mat Mc Cann might want to see what he's up to. Kinda nice to know I,m not alone .

still no word from Dan. I think his computer should be up soon so I'll plan on taking some shots this saturday. I'm sure I can get another volunteer
to post.

next weekend will be busy as I have two seminars going. tosai selection in the am and pond building in the afternoon. it's suppose to cool off from the heat wave of the last week.

yesterday with the doors open and the fans going it was 125 F in the greenhouse. Kinda warm! I told those brave enough to wander thru that I would keep and eye on them from outside the door and if they passed out or anything i would drag them out and hose them down! (lol)

[dick benbow]

Well the kohaku's spawned. I couldn't believe how little the female looks now. lots and lots of eggs. should be tuesday evening and I should get word that we have babies.

the shiro babies are now up to and inch and a half. the asagi babies up to
a half an inch.

every gallon of available grow ponds are being used and I will have to skip breeding the ochiba and matsukawabake's this year

the showa babies and shiro's are getting a mottling pattern of grayishish
brown and white.

I had never bred asagi babies before. they're real gray at birth and was surprised Sunday to see then yellowing up.

It seems that all the smallest babies hang at the surface among the plants
and the bigger toby sized ones cruise the bottom. not seeing the clouds of daphnia a few weeks earlier so you know the babies are keeping the schools thinned pretty good.

got to look at a tosai asagi from a breeding last year here in the U.S. from
Quality koi. It was being shipped to Spokane and came thru Seatac airport. The owner was there to pick it up and I was very impressed with the koi. Saw a pic of the mom and she is really pretty. Anyone who hasn't met Mat Mc Cann might want to see what he's up to. Kinda nice to know I,m not alone .

still no word from Dan. I think his computer should be up soon so I'll plan on taking some shots this saturday. I'm sure I can get another volunteer
to post.

next weekend will be busy as I have two seminars going. tosai selection in the am and pond building in the afternoon. it's suppose to cool off from the heat wave of the last week.

yesterday with the doors open and the fans going it was 125 F in the greenhouse. Kinda warm! I told those brave enough to wander thru that I would keep and eye on them from outside the door and if they passed out or anything i would drag them out and hose them down! (lol)

[Tosai_Sunny]

Hi Dick,

Thanks for all for the exciting updates with your "spawning" activities. Besides brine shrimp and daphnia, are you feeding them anything else to get them to grow so fast?

Thanks,
Tosai-Sunny

[dick benbow]

I moved a bunch of longfins recently to a lake and while harvesting them was surprised at the number of bloodworms that went along in the bag. I'm sure they're eating those. Some are big enough now to take mosquito larva. In another couple of weeks I will begin feeding tiny pellets. but basically all i provide is daphne and brine shrimp for the first month. mother nature supplies the rest! good to hear from you Sunny!

[dick benbow]

News flash from the blueberry farm.

Some of the tobys in the asagi tank are up to an inch and a half and challenging the former leaders ;the 3 week older shiro utsuri's. They look white/yellow with a brown tancho on the head. I have to do some serious
separating to protect the smaller siblings.

Stay tuned to this station for furthur developments......

[dick benbow]

Paul Harvey always suggested to his news listeners to "stand-by for news", I suggest you find a comfortable seat!..Well I diddn't get a chance to spend as much time as i wanted with the babies. I had two seminars to give, the weather was hot and by the end of the day I was running out of gas!

I have no ETA on Dan's computer so I'll try and give you some interesting tidbits on the asagi babies with pics to follow as soon as Dan gets his back. I culled out about 50 tobys ( bigger koi now eating their siblings). they are up to 1 inch and three quarters.
there seems to be two color variations. one all white ( 5 or 6 of them)
and the rest with yellow patches of color on white. I don't know if they will
loose their yellow and turn white or what. remember I have two different genetics here reverse and narumi. Since the vast magority are mottled with color I would bet my bottom dollar that the ones that will turn out
as the ones I wanted will be the all white ones. They may be all going that way and the yellow is only transistional. we'll find out. The bigger ones can now take minature pellets of which I am feeding with ( get this!!!) 66% protein!
the showa babies have almost caught up with the shiro babies. the asagi even tho 3 weeks younger are as big as the two earlier hatches.
All the other babies are growing just not as much. I point with pride to the fact that the asagi babies are now biggest, indicating (wink-wink) they are the first color variety ever made and the best and strongest genetically
and all this other frufurraw and my friends at the bluebery farm ( they got the nets up now to keep out the birds-boy that was a job!) keep ruining my"lines of theory", by giving away my secret that I give the others a look and a promise but I'm out with my favorites giving them extra food, extra time, extra everything (lol) ( I've got to be more sneaky!!!!!) So until i can get a poster for me, I'll do the best I can till I can get you some pictures. That's my report from the blueberry farm and the tails from within!

[jacovors]

Dick will supply any comments he feels nessesary.
I had to resize them to post. I am sure Dick will send anyone a set of the larger size if they want some. Really cool pictures.

[dick benbow]

Thanks to Jaco for posting

The first pic is of your truely standing in acres of blueberries. They are all netted now to keep the birds out but I do help myself frequently. ( good for the eyesight!)

The second pic is of two spawns. the koi on the far left is a wannabee tancho kohaku. the other two are shiro utsuri babies. the kohaku is about two inches and the shiro are about an inch and three quarters.

the last shot shows the 2 inch asagi babies. this shot lost a little resolution
back and forth amongst the continents but you can get an idea that one is white and ghost like and the other has a yellowish pattern.

I don't know if the yellowish pattern ones are transistional and all will be white but that's what i suspect. the reason asagi is so hard to sembetsu
is that you have to wait till their several months old and the only thing you can cull by is the amount of red showing as the rest is non descript
white.

You'd never know it but i spend close to an hour shooting and reshooting pics to try and get something! It ain't that easy! Hopefully i will get better with age! and practice!

I will be going back to the farm again today to do some more toby removal. BTW the reason the pics say sue's babies is that the lady who owns the blueberry farm and who helps me feed and raise these critters
name is sue and when we removed the shots from the camera and created a file in the computer that's the file name we gave them.

[MikeM]

Dick: I've decided the easiest way to go on taking fish pics is with a digital camera. I can get maybe one good shot out of 10. Reflections, the fish moving, water current, etc etc .... With digital I can delete until I've got a couple I like. Cost more than standard cameras, but I do think the reduced waste of film saves in the long run. Do not invest in Kodak or Fuji Film. They'll be gone in a few years.