Top Dog

[Maurice]

Quote: Originally Posted by aquitori Mo, last I checked "spelt" should be "spelled".

Sorry slang English, go check, see if I'm OK this time.

Maurice.
PS you 'spelled' my name wrong!

[aquitori]

Sorry Maurice, Mo is slang too...

Quote: Originally Posted by Maurice Sorry slang English, go check, see if I'm OK this time. Maurice. PS you 'spelled' my name wrong!

[koifishgirl]

Warning All , If you come to this forum not only will you learn about koi , you will be in school takeing a class in English also.... Please you are embarrassing me! If you do come to the forum please make sure you have a dictionary handy as you will need to make sure you spelled everthing right. If not well watch out cause you will get corrected. Gosh I just love this forum. Please make sure you correct me if I am wrong. OK.
Sometimes my typeing is not so great, but what the heck, that is what makes me, me. One thing is for sure I will keep a dictonary handy as I dont care for embarrassment.

[aquitori]

You know, we just want everyone to bring their open minds to learn and hopefully apply what is learned here to better their hobby...

[bekko]

Just type into your word processor where there is spell check and then cut-and-paste to the forum. This will also keep you from accidentally hitting that oh-my-gosh key (wherever it is hiding) that sends you back a page and erases everything you have typed.

... and why does the text turn grey when I hit the enter key to skip a line?

-steve

[Maurice]

Man after my own heart Steve.
Maurice.
PS, I'm enjoying your posts, thanks for being around.

[Brady Brandwood]

Hi Koifishgirl,...

"watch out cause you will get corrected."

In this phrase "cause" needs a "be" in front of it to be correct - "because".

Best Wishes,
Brady

[ranskye]

are you talking hormone manipulation?, yes it works mostly.
i believe it also spoils the fish in some ways and that it may just reduce its breeding life span. i wouldnt worry about the number of eggs produced but the amount of time it will produce for. if shes a very special koi dont play with them and you wont have that on your mind.
i have spawned many fish with hormones (and i have not yet proved this to myself that the spawns will dry out one day) but that is the word around the traps, it could be many more reasons why a continually bred fish from hormones loses its fecundity..as with most things though we would simply change broodstock after a while. surely you could have some of the offspring spawn for you later anyhow.
that said, i think that from time to time the fish should produce viable eggs even after years.
i once read that certain such hormones can be used as a birth control system in certain countries- probably by overplaying with the egg developement. i dont know if it is reversible with time at all in humans. who knows about fish??

with koi it is easy enough to have them spawn totally naturally, so long as the egg is up to scratch, as determined by how well the fish is conditioned.
keep them apart, then introduce them to the new water, i think barometric pressure can be utilised (storms) to advantage. think about what makes a koi spawn and manipulate that instead. a natural flow of hormones that trigger a spawn will result.
what you could do is aneasthetise the fish and check that the egg quality is good beforehand, i am assuming once again that you plan to breed earlier than they would normally.
keep her happy, move her gently into conditions that would have her spawn naturally and she should go fine.

[Akai-San]

Quote: Originally Posted by koifishgirl Yes you are rite, I have a long road ahead of me, but I am determined to make a success of this and I dont give up easy, I dont care if it takes me 10 years, it is not a I think I can, it is I know I can for me.

KFG,
Do you have another job to go to? From what I hear, breeding and rearing the fry is a full time job. Being able to cull the fry is another story. I getting overwhelmed by just talking about it.

With that large a pond, I am very interested in how you will be maintaining your water quality. Water quality has become somewhat of an obsession with me since joining this forum. I'm just trying to plan a 10K-12K gallon concrete pond and I'm finding that maintaining optimal quality water 24/7 to grow-out quality koi can be near impossible.

Can you share with me your water filtration design and set-ups. Judging from the size of your pond(s), you'll be working with 160,000 gallons (60x60x6), how are you planning to filter or move the water in your ponds? Are you incorporating typical aquaculture set-ups? I would love to see progress photos of your project as you strive to meet your goals. I'm getting inspired because my ponds (10K and 2K gal.) seem so insignificant to 160K+.

[koifishgirl]

Hello Akai-San,

Yes,, I am sorry to say that I do work full time and wish it could be the other way around and could work full time on this project, but moneys will not allow me to do that at this time.
I do get overwhelmed at times also just thinking about what I have do to, that is why I wanted to learn how to do artifical spawning as it will help me with the time that I have to work on this project. If I can work this around my schedule insted of the koi,s well it will be better. I would be hard for me to wait untill they wanted to spawn and then me at work and them have a very large lunch and all work will be lost.


As you know my ponds will be mud ponds so I will be using a very large bog to help wiht the water qualiyt. I have some concern about bad bacteria but with that size it would be very hard to build and keep clean any other type filter, I plan on a 6 inch free space in the bottom of my bog, I will be using 2in pvc with holes drilled all along the pipes to let water into the bog. the next level I will put matting down, I will be using the stuff that you put on beds andi it is called egg crate, since this stuff floats on the water i will be putting it together with pvc to keep it in place, I will be makeing sections small enough to take out and rince and put back into bog. The next level will be a solid mass of floating plants, durning the summer month. I will have Water Hyacinth on top of the bog type filter to keep down the poop and pee. I may have to take out the matting later because of being able to keep it clean I just wanted to see how this works. If I do have to change I will be using the floater to clear the water. The Water Hyacinth are very good at filtering water but they only live outside during the summer month. I still want to find a very good floater that will live during the winter months. If I dont I will try the matting during the winter.

As for culling I still am not sure how many fry I will get out of my spawns. This year wont be to bad as I will only spawn one pair so I should have the time to cull, but next year I plan on two spawns so i will have to cross that road when I get their.

With your pond being a concrete pond why dont you use the bakki shower system as they dont need cleaning and is supposed to be the best way to filter the water. If I could build mine concrete this is what I would do because of maintainence.
I still have a great deal to learn and hope that I do not make alot of costly mistakes as I go. I will say this my ponds will be getting fresh water everyday, I will be running my well 4 hours to help keep the water clean and I will take some pics after I get the ponds dug out and start working on my filter so you can see what I am doing. The pond at this time is half the size and will make it the size that I have talked about. I have also learned that the pond will not be a good size for the fry and only needs to be 3ft deep so will be digging my fry ponds. It is the wrong time of the year to be digging ponds so I will have to wait and do this in the spring, I will be getting my parent koi then and will have to put them into the main pond untill I get the ponds completed and should only take a couple of days to finish.