Novice breeding questions

[dick benbow]

First of all i have to say a big THANKS to Brian for lining up an asagi article and it sounds like it will be about the breeder I'm most interested in! Fantastic!

Next to our Friends in alberta Canada. I'm thinking it's still a little cold up there, no? when your fry hatch you'll need some fry food smaller than
mosquito larve! If you can't find the Daphne, start up some brine shrimp!

I could if there is interest write a thread here that i could update on how the spawning went if there is enough interest. I don't know how to post pics on the board yet, but I think I can get some taken and jpegged to someone who knows how to post them if you'd like to be involved. Maybe I can get dan blatt to post. speaking of dan, his sumi inagashi female he just got is something to behold.

[Bancherd]

Quote: Originally Posted by dick benbow First of all i have to say a big THANKS to Brian for lining up an asagi article I could if there is interest write a thread here that i could update on how the spawning went if there is enough interest. I don't know how to post pics on the board yet, but I think I can get some taken and jpegged to someone who knows how to post them if you'd like to be involved. Maybe I can get dan blatt to post. speaking of dan, his sumi inagashi female he just got is something to behold.

Dick, count me in!

[Sanke56]

Yes I am interested too. I would like to see the pics of that fantastic fish. My adults are likely eating the mosquito larvae and the fry eat all the micro's in there when they come along spawning usally takes place iin late June or July. Last year I had a spawning in each of those months. The water temp is over 55 F and my fish are used to eating at that temp as they were at about 56-58 in the garage and eating well. so start the thread great idea.

[Tosai_Sunny]

Dick,

Great idea! That's axactly what I have been waiting for...Please count me in as well. BTW, I found the koi breeding book that you referred to on Ebay. I will try to bid on it soon. Congratulations on the successful spawning of your shiros and showas. Best of luck on your first asagi spawn. I can almost feel your excitement of anticipation.
Also, am I reading you correctly that the first culling of shiro and showa fry is when they are about a week old? Can you share with us amateur-breeder-wannabes a general description of the type of fry you would keep to grow further?



Thanks,
Tosai Sunny

[dick benbow]

Koi fry take about three days to develop in the egg and hatch. It is critical to keep the water stable in temperature so it does not chill. A flap of plastic over the top of a show tank where they were spawned helps
as does a few aquarium heaters if the weatherman says the temps are expected to fall.
Within a day or two with both showa and shiros, you will see different colored fry. hopefully the majority will be black with the rest yellow or white or both. you discard the yellow or white fry and retain only black.
this is a tremendous advantage as you can keep your numbers down quickly for water quality considerations and also you are now feeding daphne or brine shrimp as live foods are SO IMPOTANT to thier growth
the first month of thier life.
Now you keep an eye open for the bigger fry that grow the quickest
and keep youngsters together of similar size so they don't eat thier siblings. As the color develops you'll be able to see patterns but depending on thier inherited genes, black will come up and down, or stay submerged under the skin. when the red comes up it's yellow, then goes to more of an orange as the months pass by.
Sunny, just for you here's a trick I learned with tosai showa. Many times as 6 inch koi you will see heavy black in the body area near the tail.
the stepped kohaku pattern is there along the rest of the koi so you are thinking of discarding this koi because the black is too dominant in the tail section. HOLD UP THERE PARTNER! look carefully under the black for any signs of red in the tail stop area. I usually take the youngsters outside in the sun for full light. many times the next spring or early summer the black crawls off the back to reveal a nicely finished koi with red in tail stop area that formerly was covered. for othert lurkers who buy tosai showa to raise remember this as you won't have to pay for pattern
that doesn't show. this is a fascinating hobby of ours, no wonder can
enjoy it soo much ( or the other end of the spectrum when things go bad)

[Tosai_Sunny]

Dick, thanks again for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with us newbies. I started out this hobby with the fascination for kohakus, now showas with their ever changing charateristics are much more interesting to me. Hopefully, someday I will have an opportunity to experiment with breeding them. As for the thread to track your breeding progress, that would be a great learning experience for us if you can find the time to do so. Please let me know if you need a helping hand posting pictures on this board.

Best Wishes,
Tosai Sunny

[dick benbow]

Thanks sunny,
sure will let you know for posting. I will take the pics of mom and dad this saturday after my seminar. some 50 people are expected so should be fun!
Note to Brian....
I will be bragging on my favorite koi magazine and will bring my own copies to see if I can get some new subscribers to the magazine and board!

[jacovors]

Dick,

I wish you all the best with this year's spawning,may it be the best yet.
I for one would appreciate a weekly update. Being new to this I hope I kept the right fry at the last culling and it becomming Winter here do not get to see much of them.They are staying in the mudpond for Winter and I should only see them again up close in October when it is hot enough to drag the pond again. I think only then will I see if any have real potential or not. I am planning to spawn again this year around October and want to add two more mudponds for fry only.That way I can keep each set of fry seperate and evaluate the parents better.

Cheers,
Jaco

[dick benbow]

I keep forgetting as I'm going into summer, your going into winter. It's a hard time for a koi keeper but a good time to dream and plan. thanks for the good wishes. I'll take photos of the parents tommorrow after my seminar for new koi keepers. Just basic stuff. then I have about 100 mix gosanke tosai to sort out just thru quaranteen. I hope you have some turn out for you. we novice breeders need all the encouragement we can get.

[dick benbow]

Well, the seminar is over and the asagi's got introduced Saturday afternoon. I took pictures for the male and female (remember I'm not a professional) and then a pic of the two together in the spawning pond.
I have forwarded the pics to Dan Blatt who posts on this board with a request to start a new thread and I'd fill in the info. I have to say I'm excited to spawn these two as I have quite the love for these koi as individuals and for thier color variety.