Fall Spawns

[koifishgirl]

How hard is it to get koi to spawn in the fall and if I can get them to what are some of the measures that I need to take? will there be enough live foods this time of year to get them going. Any tips that will help me get them spawning?

[gregbickal]

I have had my koi spawn last August. A cold rain, say 1" downpour, usually does the trick, very rare for that time of year in Iowa. If you did a water change, lets say 15% with cold water, you might be able to induce it, but probably with females that maybe didnt spawn in the spring already.

I have a 2700 gallon underground cistern. It holds water about 55F. You would want the water change to happen pretty fast (say 30 minutes). Anything slower than that and it might not trigger them. Probably not worth it to attempt something that late in the season, unless you are in a warm climate.

[koifishgirl]

HI Greg around here the temp are good in the fall, I have well water that is pretty cold, so how do I do this, do I just transfer the parents into the cool water or what? I can lower on of the ponds down and start adding cold water to the pond and let them spawn in there I guess if that will work.

[estanque_koi]

Hi Judy,
spawning in fall might be quite risky. Why are you in such a hurry? You might consider waiting till next year instead of pushing the limits too far just for a start. Rush can be quite risky, and can lead you back in your way instead of making any significant progress.
Maybe you should invest some time testing your system of mud ponds and making sure ererything is fail safe (as much as possible) and works allright.
Just my opinion,
Diego

[luke frisbee]

E.Koi has a point. but there is nothing wrong with learning, and where you live you could grow them big enough for the early Spring market. try a second team to learn with. feed em good for a month or more, and easily control the water by putting them in a couple of thousand gallons.

[bekko]

Where you been KFG? I figured they must have banned you for asking to many questions :>)

In Hawaii there is a secondary spawning peak in September. However, when I lived in your part of the country I never could get a fall spawn. Probably didn't try hard enough though.

You know, just the process of moving koi from one pond/tank to another seems to help stimulate them to spawn. Try the rapid cooling. If that doesn't work, try rapidly warming them up again.

The sure-fire method is to put them in a room with complete temperature and lighting control. Take them through an artificial annual day-length and temperature cycle where a year is compressed into 4-6 months. When the artificial spring comes around, they will think its spring and will spawn.

-steve hopkins

[koifishgirl]

Luke Thats what I am hopeing for, one of the farmer in this area gets his koi to spawn in the fall, but I think he gives them shots to get them started. I think Im going to give him a call as he told me when I get ready he would give my koi the shots. I wanted to do this without the shots because I dont want to hurt my Momotaro Kohaku pair, he has some older koi that I can buy from him cheap to do a few spawns if I want to and I may use them, the only thing is these koi are 20 years old and not sure if I would get a good hatch from them, I think if I can remember right that the eggs are kind of tough if the koi are over 8 years old, Im not sure.

Steve I have been kind of busy as my son got married this past weekend and the pics of the big lakes that I posted for you guys to see is hell to keep up. We are always cutting grass and weadeating around those lakes. It is as clean as if you hired some contractor to keep it up. This time of year is hard on us and since I have started my place with plans for the farm it is going to get harder, Im waiting on the county to fix a bridge that is out so Jacks dad can get the tractor over to my place to put in the pipe work to the ponds, they are kind of a back woods county and its hard to get them to do anything. I have everything to put the pipe work in and I could not believe how much the cut offs cost around here. The good ones are running me 20 bucks as piece, they got you when it comes to plumbing because they know you have to have it.

I just called Danny and he has told me just to transfer from one pond to the other and they would spawn for me natural. I hope he is right as I need to get this spawn. The only thing about spawning that late is we have untill late Dec. before the weather around here starts getting cold, sometimes its even later. My fear is will they be big enough to take the long winter. Steve I think I will do what you said, the rapid cooling, I can do this with the well water by lowering one of the ponds and filling it back up with the cold water and then letting it warm back up on its own, and then lowering the water and see if that works, if it does not well its no big thing, Its just that people are wanting to know when I will have some koi to sell. These are just people with small koi ponds but still word of mouth can get you going and then I can always post over the net.