| Oyagoi
Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Puerto Rico Posts: 1,228
| The first thing to do is get the nitrates up to 20 ppm and go for 40 if we can. That'll bring the yellow out....
Jnorth, why dont you just come out and say you want to know how to keep your water to develop certain potentials you have because you want to win a show man. You can do it. Here is what I have learned over the last 10 years that noone want anyone to come out and say because then you might go out and do it and they will shine a little less bright and be slightly less of a superstar themselves.
Turn the water green when they are young and seed in blue-green algaes and spirulina. Then get a shrimp hatchery going and feed fresh shrimp daily, twice if u can. Then get your source water to acceptable levels, which are dependent on variety you want to develop. After the first year, if the spirulina and algaes arent growing right to get natural enhancement, then get yourself some different spectrum lights and create a tropical environment light spectrum for it to grow. Leave them on all day and turn them off at night.
For kohaku-
Get rid of all yellow enhancers. They will get more than enough in mud pond from algaes. If your pond isnt a mud, then get some bentonite and drop a couple wheel barrow loads at least in. The water will cloud for a few weeks. throw away your uv light. If you need more biological filtration get it.
You can feed them mariglod if you want to make them horny or beef the yellow from time to time. Too much yellow will ruin the shiro. The red will turn it pink but it fades back to nice white easy, for some reason noone explains the yellow tint never goes completely away once it's there. So be very careful with the yellow enhancers. Throw them in the trash if you have them.
Then go read your local miracle-gro bloom buster label, and put the same amount of cobalt sulfate in your water bi weekly. If it makes flowers pretty it make algae the same and your koi will then eat it. Make sure you feed B-12 to keep them hungry and growing.
It will make your koi feed like mad and turn red as hell. Do not keep them in a deep pond in growing season, no more than 4 ft, but plenty wide and long. Keep them in full sun and let that water get warm and stay warm. Only let your winter last about a month, no more than two. If you live in hot regions, use a swamp cooler to chill the water in Dec and Jan. And do a two or three week fast. Get a shower and waterfall and oxygenate the heck out of your water.
Keep the water coming in very soft. No more than 70 or 80 in tds. For kohaku as tosai, ph 7.0-7.4, once they are bigger at, 6.8-7.0.
Soft low ph water is best. For sanke raise ph to 7.4 until nearing show age, then up to 7.8-8.2. For showa keep them around 7.6 until show age, then up to 8.4. Read tewa's quote if you want to know gh and kh Maeda uses. Good targets. The old 'breeders can do it but we can't' line, is bs, ask any real breeder.
If you can get your behind in here to koi chat all the time, you can grow a koi. The old 'you gotta be 40 year sensei of the unkown secrets from living in cave wearing robe greats I secretly meet with' crap, is just that, crap. Feed your koi well, keep them in a good pool, select good genetics, and you can grow a koi nice.
Don't throw all your eggs in one basket. Breeders don't, why should you? From there it is simply a numbers game. Keep doing it and eventually you will have some stunners and head turners. You will learn with time to pick better for the future. Don't get jealous if someone finds and buys a nice koi, get stoked that there are koi that nice and develop one if you can't buy one.
Truth is every show is not won by a ringer, in fact there is no such thing as a ringer. I am sick of hearing the term. I have seen better stuff in certain ponds in the US that is better than anything that has ever been shown there. So the 'it can't happen in the US' thing is bs. Keep trying. Simple. Truth is news about a nice koi spreads fast when folks find out, and someone buys it right before the show when price are highest, the owner sells high, laughs, and says, I wil just raise another to himself. No sweat. Get over it.
I also don't think wheat germ does anything but make my koi crap more which keeps the biological filter going in the winter. Good soft water + genetics - yellow enhancers = good shiro. Red enhancers will make pink but it dissipates in month or so. So dont even worry about it until time to show nears. Black is another pigment, algae is the answer. Look at plecos. What do they eat? Simple. The lighting will help with that. Do not use a white pool, or light blue, closed chromatorphes do not fill out too well.
The next question will be 'have you ever shown'. The answer is no. Why? Too far to travel and dont have money to spend all the time. I did not get into this hobby to win shows, but to chill out and enjoy something relaxing and natural. If I lived in the states, I would go most likely. I was in the states for a couple years not long ago, but we knew we weren't staying so I did not build a pond or put roots.
I am building more ponds and using them to homeschool my son, the pond is such an awesome science and nature teacher. He knows how to make strong concrete walls with rehbar at four and how far apart the bars have to go to withstand hurricane winds. He knows how much sand to mix in for each bag of cement, and how many big bars to cut down to smaller for the steel part. He knows more than most guys who work as helpers in construction at 4 thanks to a koi pond.
I hope steven comes to a show with a 45" jaw dropper just to shut the whiners up. Please post some more of your koi pics Steven, I enjoy them. I would not mind seeing Nancy's and aquitoris and keokoi's too. That is one big vortex. How much did it run?
I bet they all have some nice koi. The whole point of this is to enjoy koi. Who cares who owns it or what day they bought it or how they found out about it or how far it traveled to be at a show. If it is beautiful, and the best that day, it should win. You guys upset about it have given up on yourselves too easily. You can do it too. So plz quit all the d*** whining and get your ponds going good, improve them a little each week. That is 52 upgrades a year. You don't have time to whine about others if you are doing those upgrades.
You all know how to DIY the newest technology, so no more excuses exist. You have to start winning some shows or I am going to be really irritated at you. Quit whining, it is embarrassing in front of our international neighbors. They fight ten times the odds you do and win shows and do not whine once. So plz su. Did you see the red on our South african friend's koi?? He lives in the desert and did that. So plz, you aint got no excuse.
Nice red on those koi btw collin. Thanks for showing us it can be done no matter the odds.
Most Japanese breeders started out with a plastic liner they wish was big enough for a whole pond and HAD to make mud to have a pond, and a shovel and a hand me down pump. They did not start with 200 acres, their own river, and forty lakes with sifted special magic mud and a $3000 a month budget just to run pumps and 2 million for filters. The multimillion dollar facility came much much later. They did not start like that. If they did it, with two arms, two legs, and a brain, so can you.
Sorry if I was rude or rough, but having been around the world, I have seen alot and am amazed at how folks do not realize they have more than the best of the best started with in their hands already. You should be shouting for joy and looking for good dna lines for cheap. Like they did. |
12-22-2005
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