Jeff Speck's Growout Form

[RookieKoiGuy]

Enough about the koi.
You need to post some baby pics on your grow-out page

RookieKoiGuy Grow out Form

[Lomaponder]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sangreaal Jeff, I just love your greenhouse. That's exactly what I want to build here to overwinter koi once I have my mudponds in. I'd love to see more pics of the layout. Is the new pond you have your Shiros in inside the greenhouse?

Hey Jeff,

Is the building in Post #1 the same one that is featured in the Koi Club of San Diego's picture gallery of ponds? I thought that was a nice set-up.

matt

[Jeff Speck]

Adelle was born on Tuesday. Pretty much 15 minutes of pushing and she was out. Mommy and baby are doing very well. Daddy has perma-grin. The baby was coming so fast we almost had the on-call doctor for the delivery--none other than AKCA judge and obstetrician Galen Hansen. But, alas, our doctor made it in time. This is our first (and probably only) so it's all new and we'll be in training for a while. We are dizzy with blessing.

[RookieKoiGuy]

Congratulations to you and Heather...
A very cute lil girl...




RookieKoiGuy Grow out Form

[Lomaponder]

Jeff,

Congrats to your wife and you. Welcome to fatherhood (well, at least with the human kind).

So will the sweet girl see her dad in competition at the KCSD Koi Show?

[Jeff Speck]

Marie and Matt--

Yes, all 6 of our tanks are in the greenhouse, plus room for show tanks. Main pond is 7000 gallons, new tosai pond is 2800, a "deep tank" that is 2000 and 8' deep, and 3 tanks of 1000. I will try to add a few pictures and/or a sketch later on. Yes, the San Diego club has it on their web page but those are old pictures of the south end. That was just the beginning. (Missed the pond tour, but I've seen the pics of your pond too, Matt--very nice!)

Reasons for the greenhouse and running 16,000 gallons:
1--Koi addiction.
2--Koi addiction.
3--I like to play around with breeding. Did shubunkins the first year and koi the last two years. We could do mud ponds here, but I don't think I will since the greenhouse already takes up too much of my time between May and July. I cull down to 10-20 and give them away. I'm not selling them, but if the quality got better I would consider trading a batch for koi food or something, except then I probably could not show or participate in a grow-out, etc. So who knows, but it's just too much fun for me to resist--watching a batch develop and learning from them. So far, I'm mainly trying to get the mechanics down, as in the feeding and stocking rates that will give the maximum growth in these tanks as opposed to mud ponds.

I guess Reason #3 sounded a lot like koi addiction also...

[Jeff Speck]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lomaponder fatherhood (well, at least with the human kind). So will the sweet girl see her dad in competition at the KCSD Koi Show?

I hope to stop by the show, but that's all. Why do you ask?

[Jeff Speck]

Regarding breeding, because it can be a heated issue, there are many, many ponders inexperienced and experienced alike who do some backyard breeding. Most of whom are doing a better job of it than I have so far. Some have mud ponds, and I think that's awesome to take it to that level. There are a couple of others in this grow-out who breed. The smart ones learn to never talk about it. We've all heard of the CA koi judge who was breeding and showed his koi and AKCA was fine with it but everyone's got an opinion.

For the record, if folks object to the smell of me saying I'm dabbling at breeding, I'm perfectly willing to withdraw from the grow-out. But if you think I'm some hot-shot semi-pro, doing anything beyond tossing away time and money on my hobby, then you need to stop by and have a laugh at my current batch of about 20 pond mutts grown to a whopping 4 inches since last June, lol.

OK, just wanted make sure that was out in the open.

[PapaBear]

Heck Jeff, you sound pretty much like us when it comes to "breeding"... (We let'em spawn, cross our fingers, and watch semi-cute pond mutts grow a while)
Our last batch is now thinned down to less than 4 dozen, sizes ranging from 4" to 8 1/2". Folks like us learn from hands on observations better than studying books, looking at pictures, and spending huge sums on fish we know too little about (yet). Nobody is going to confuse us with pro's or even semi-pro's

[RookieKoiGuy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jeff Speck Regarding breeding, because it can be a heated issue, there are many, many ponders inexperienced and experienced alike who do some backyard breeding. Most of whom are doing a better job of it than I have so far. Some have mud ponds, and I think that's awesome to take it to that level. There are a couple of others in this grow-out who breed. The smart ones learn to never talk about it. We've all heard of the CA koi judge who was breeding and showed his koi and AKCA was fine with it but everyone's got an opinion. For the record, if folks object to the smell of me saying I'm dabbling at breeding, I'm perfectly willing to withdraw from the grow-out. But if you think I'm some hot-shot semi-pro, doing anything beyond tossing away time and money on my hobby, then you need to stop by and have a laugh at my current batch of about 20 pond mutts grown to a whopping 4 inches since last June, lol. OK, just wanted make sure that was out in the open.

It doesn't look like the Japanese breeders are going to have anything to worry about
in the near future with you

Good luck with it.