Novice breeding questions

[Fishbreeder]

Never mentions koi even once!

The book is "A Hatchery Manual for Common, Chinese, and Major Indian Carps" by Jhingrin and Pullin, published by ICLARM (International Center for Living Aquatic Resources) in the Phillipines.

The book is written in common English and directed at Third World farmers so there is no jargon and no high tech BS you can't do in the backyard or on your "gentleman's farm."

Most "koi specific" production books are so full of jargon and high tech that they become confusing and impossible to follow. This is purposely done in order to discourage folks from breeding koi.

My best advice here...take dick benbow's posts above and print them up to make your own koi breeding book, it'll be a good 'un.

[ChangT]

Hello all,
This is my first time to post here, although I've been reading this Forum for quite a while from south Florida.

In my small pond of 800 gallons, I've had a big mixed breed from two male Kohaku (both 20 inch, 3 years old), and four females: one 24in blacky, one 20in sanke, one 22in gold yamabuki, and one 24in shining black with gold strips. This happened a month ago, and all 4 females got bruise and injury, and significant weight reduction, I moved all adults to another pond. Eggs hatched in thousands, now only about a few hundreds survived, all sized one 1/2in to 1.5in long, all different strange colors, majority carries shining yellow and black, and some clear white, some are blacky....

Anyone can tell me what I should expect and cull out, so I dont have to raise all of them in that 800gallon pond?

Many thanks ahead,

[dick benbow]

Hi There!

My advice would be not to expect any kind of true genetics since you have a mixed bag, so to speak.
If I were you I would look first for body shape to make sure all the
babies have all thier fins and straight heads and backs.
then I would select representative fish from the different groups. a black, a black and yellow etc. koi babies change as they grow so you would never know from thier background what to expect. select about two dozen and they should grow very fast. by fall you'll have something
big enough to see if they're worth hanging on to.
let's face it, the chances are small to getting anything of value, the real value is in the education you get learning to care for them and watching them change. I hope you enjoy yourself this summer.

[Sanke56]

I have trouble selecting just 25 fry I know they would grow better but maybe that great showa or tancho would be culled. When I have a spawning I tend to keep them all and wait to see which ones have the best characteristics when they are 2 inches long. Culling for conformation is great but not that easy to see unless they are in a glass aquarium. I have a tough time in the pond or net seeing flaws.