Pond construction begins

[koifishgirl]

Hi Daz, since this will be my first time culling, I felt it would be in my best interest to hold on to the cull for a whille so I can go back and see what I might have culled that would be good koi. Ok. for me, I have the space to learn with right now, I have no experience with culling at all. I dont want to sit with a bowl full of fry and start throwing koi in a ice bucket just yet just because I dont think they are nice koi. Im not talking about holding on to them for months, just a few more weeks to make sure I know what Im doing. My very first koi with color that I bought was ugly to me when I got him and now he is a pretty koi, thing is here you got to know what to look for and I dont have a clue. I can post pic of the fry on the net for u guys to look at for me and then cull, but that is going to take a lot of time. Im going to do that with my first pull, I plan to seperate the koi that look the same into lots and post the pics. If one lot is a cull lot then I can put them in a bucket of ice and save space. If the next lot is iffy then I can hold on to them a while longer, if the next lot is a good lot then they will go in the grow out ponds untill next spring.

[bekko]

Before sitting down with a bowl full of juveniles, you need to have some sense of what you are looking for.

Since you seem to have the time and the space, grade the fish into four groups:
1) deformed fish and magoi which have no value and are discarded immediately.
2) Higoi, matsuba, gosanke with unbalanced hi patterns, and other fish which seem destined to be pond-grade at best. This will be the largest group and can be either discarded or placed into one pond.
3) Fish which you think have potential to develop into something. This will be a small group but should be given a pond so they have room to grow.
4) Fish which make you smile when you spot them and seem destined to turn into good fish. This will be a really small group but can still be given their own pond.

Drain all the ponds in March and see how good your judgement was.

In the pics you posted a few weeks ago, there seemed to be white-based fish with emerging hi patterns, but you still had to "look through the skin" to see it. I do not know showa, but the pics also seemed to have black-based fish with emerging hi patterns. Concentrate on the emerging hi patters for now because its too early to evaluate the sumi.

-steve

[D@z]

ahh ok, fair enough

Which fry pictures is Bekko refering too? I must have misssed them, were are they?

[kgt1223]

Mike is right Judy.

The overall development and general health of the pond will be better with more depth. The deeper the better. OUr ponds run between 10 and twelve feet deep at the center. It is my belief that your o2 levels will not fluctuate as much with a deeper pond as well.


JMHO, Kiefer

[koifishgirl]

Im not worth a crap as catching koi, I pull the pond ten times and this is all I came up with. At least you can see a little of what is in the pond, There are some much nicer koi in the pond I just got to get better at pulling a pond. I sure am glad I dont have a pond full of small koi that I need to have pulled before someone came to pic them up, right now I could not get the job done, you would not think it would be that hard to catch the fish. I had fun though, most of the time was spent trying to get a switch wired up close to the ponds, we waited to late and the rain keep us at bay for a long time today .

[bekko]

Make short seine pulls in a corner. Bring the poles together at the water line. Have one person standing outside the net holding the poles together and one person inside the net pulling in the two lead lines together. When the lead line is all on the bank, step out of the net and pull up the bag with the fish in it.

Toss the magoi. Sell off or toss the shiromuji and higoi (solid yellow now). The photo is fuzzy, but here are my picks (circles) for now....

-steve

[koifishgirl]

Steve, when you say magoi, are you talking about the koi that are grey with yellow in the head, there are a lot of these fry, just plain koi with no pattern. I dont know why my pics are not clear, I may have zoomed in to close. The little fry to the left far side that you circled is I think a little Asagi, one of the first catch from our pulls. Some of the yellow fry in the pics are Kin Gin Rin Yamabuki, I dont know how I could get Kin Gin Rin because none of the parents are Kin Gin Rin. The pans that only have a few koi in them are the crow koi, black with orange bellies and looks to be yellow on some. Jack loves these koi and I think Im going to keep them. There are some yellow fry with a few spots of sumim, should I cull these fry also? I also noted that I have some doitsu koi that are yellow, Im not sure how good they will be as some of the scales look to be misplaced on the sides of the koi. Would this be pond grade koi?

Also I noted several fry with ulcers on them, Would this be caused from overfeeding? I am feeding once a day, is that to much? Im scared I am going to run into some problems and may lose a lot of my fry, I wont know until I get the rest of the pond full.



I made my own seine, and I did not make the weight heavy enough, got to put some more weight on the seine, our problem was the grass on the edge of the pond, every time we pull the net up to the grass to try and cup it the fry would slip out under the chain because of the heavy grass. Several times we would have a load of fry and the top of the seine would float just under the water surface and the fry would find this spot and you could just see them raceing out the gap. I think I am going to put some floats on the top of the seine to keep this from happening again. I really think with a few modification it will work good, but I think most of the problem was us not knowing really how to pull the pond, on the good side of this the stuff I used to make this works good and is very easy to full through the water.

[koifishgirl]

I noted on some of the fry that are yellow you have picked most of the ones that look to have some patten, deeper yellow, is this going to turn or will the light yellow become shiro? Just wondering if these will be Kohaku fry? Or will they be What?

[koifishgirl]

Got a few more pics of the fry. I keep two popeye koi that are kind of pretty and put in my main pond at the house, just wondering will they live. I tossed some of the koi today and that was hard, I keep putting them back in the pan of water. I knew this would be a problem for me, I guess I will get used to it. Hope you can tell me something about the fry, I have one koi that is blue green in color with matsuba pattern, just wondering if this koi is a chagoi koi? Maybe you can see it in the pics.

[koifishgirl]

Drained Mud Pond Today And Culled Heavy, Got Some Problems, 1. Alot Of My Older Koi Are Stressed And I Dont Know Why, Most Of The Koi's Fins Are Red. Several Of The Koi Have Some Red Spots Or Sores On Them, I Also Noted This On A Lot Of My Fry, Can Anyone Please Help Me With This As Fresh Water Runs In The Pond 24/7 Why Would My Koi Be Under Stress?, Or Is This Normal For Koi In A Mud Pond.

I Have Three Koi Sold And I Gave Them A Good Salt Bath And Have Them In Fresh Water, No Sores On Them But The Fins Are Red, Sign Of Stress.



Please Help. I Dont Understand How Or Why This Is Happening.