pictures of farm ponds

[ranskye]

here are some pics i took last year to show people on here but i never got around to it, this year im hoping to show some pics of some breeders to get some advice on which pairings i should do.
ive got seven of these ponds so i should be able to produce a lot of baby koi to go through in the coming years..

[ranskye]

that pic obvioulsy is an empty pond, they are about 70mx14mx1.8m with the isalnd in the middle. it has been estimated they hold about 1 meg of water each.
the bottom is all flat but sand has been placed in them to about 1 and a half foot deep and the bottom is now contoured to drain toward the harvest pit.
there is now mud all over the pond that has built up over the last ten years or so of feeding crops of fish.

[ranskye]

those pics above are some from last year also, they are baby koi.

next pic below left shows the harvest sump where all the koi gather as water is pumped out to the effluent pond.
the collar you see is the height that the water is left at after i pull the six inch pvc external standpipes, the rest of the water below that must be pumped out and takes about 3 hours and is done at night time, with the remainding 30 thousand litres of so pumped in the early hours of the morning so that we can get in there at first light to catch the fish in nets and then place them in buckets of water and carry them up the ladder and drop them into nets or tanks.

[ranskye]

the photo above on the right shows the pond we hold the broodfish in, the skinny cages that float hold our goldfish breeders and some koi for sale.
the larger draping net pens you see toward the back are the three net pens we hold the koi breeders in. the net touches the bottom and gets hard to dislodge it when pulling it in to select the breeders for the next batch.
two of those pens hold females and the one closer to veiw holds the males.
im not exactly sure how many breeders we have but it would be about 50 to 70 in each big pen.
so about 120 females i suppose. they arent all good though.
i have some favourites which i will show soon.
we also have a few cages of koi ranging from 10cm to 40cm.
there are at any time about 30-60 fish free swimming in the pond also, these include some that have jumped out of the cages and some that i have chosen to grow bigger to hopefully become breeders in the coming years.

i let about 20 shusui and a few asagi go last year and they should be about 20cm now.
ive seen a couple of showa that are htting 25cm and will be able to breed next season.

if i work hard i will get about 2 more crops of koi this year, ive done 3 so far.
ive used most of the best females but plan on using the best of the males again.

at the moment ive got about 150,000 - 200,000 koi ranging from 2cm to 8cm and one of my ponds needs harvesting real quick as i see some big shooters that will be eating fish everyday.
its hard to balance normal farm duties with all the sorting and harvesting required to keep on top of how many koi there are.
im trying to sort as much as i can and when i get some nice ones i throw them into some other smaller ponds under a hothouse, then sell off the ones i dont want to keep. in previous years ive ended up with a lot of bad koi that havce hit above 10cm..

so far i havent produced many good ones because i havent concentrated on it enough.

[ranskye]

the pic on the right show the bird netting, not all of it is that fine mesh though.
if we didnt have this the cormorants would eat us out!
also theres a pic of the type of cage (middle) that the fish are spawned in and a pic of kohaku from last year on the left, the cage wa lifted so we could see the fish better.
they dont seem to get much damage at all even though it might look like a worry.

these fish are spawned directly in a pond that has been newly filled, the eggs are removed with the spawing material which happens to be balls of the white bird netting. these eggs are placed in a bigger net to make retrieval of the nets easy after the larve have hatched out.

[dizzyfish]

ranskye,
Interesting stuff. Where in Oz are you located at? I understand Australia has a ban on importing koi, so you have to obtain all your broodstock in country. No? Do you know what bloodlines (breeders) got in before the ban?
Mitch

[MikeM]

Ranskye: Sometimes I've not got the time to get through your rambles, but you always give a new perspective that lets me better understand how the world of koi is all interconnected. Please keep sharing.

[ranskye]

Im Near sydney in NSW, the koi came from local koi society members around 10 years or more ago. as far as lines go i really have no idea as i havent spoken with those that are in the know...
the fish were bred here on site and then taken home, i hear it was in exchange for some of the offspring from the pairings.

the government put a ban on koi coming into the country around the late seventies i believe. there have been a few that have somehow entered the country since then but not very many. what lines these are i dont know either but i hear we got some ogon genetic about 7 years ago via that pathway.
so yes they are around but i spose people like to keep it to themselves and keep them to themsleves. no doubt many of their young can be bought as they wouldnt cull them all.
so yeah these fish are a fair few few generations removed from the japanese breeder fish.

im just on the lookout for some nice clours and that, i dont really need to have the show examples just the daughters and sons and grandaughters etc and ill do my best from there.

i guess the older fish that i have could be about 5 generations from those that originally came from japan stock.
some fish in the newer generations that we have are rough and ill be replacing them over time but occasionally i find some real nice ones.

mike, thats ok, i know im very long winded, always have been. ill keep it coming though, ive got thick skin, hopefully ill get some decent pics soon and you can just make up your own stories from looking at them.
i will be interested in hearing back on which fish i have that will give the better offspring but will explain the techniques we use on the way as well in the hope that some may find it interesting and some may steer me towards better methods in some areas that we are surely lacking.

[MikeM]

.... Your stories are much better.

[PapaBear]

Unique and well thought out design on your "canal style" ponds. I can see some real advantages to it.
I'm with Mike... Keep it coming. The uphill battle you have breeding decent Koi from a restricted genepool is a real challenge, but the Kohaku pair you pictured looked pretty good.