daphnia culture for koi fry food

here my fry food. not great pictures as they are very small, but have thousands

Day 1 of 2009 spawn

So its that time of year again. weather warmed up nicely so was decided to plan spawn for sat morn. Thursday night i moved female doitsu sanke into 500 gallon breeding tank which was already prepared with spawning ropes in place.

Friday afternoon male kohaku and male showa was added to tank. then added small heater to tank to keep temp at 20c + overnight.

Alarm clock set for 4.00 am in morn. and off to bed early :-)

4.00 next morn cup of tea in hand walked up to tank. and looks like we are in buisness, all going to plan. both males were getting excited as daylight appears.

Approx 5.00 am. they started chasing her around and then she started to realese eggs. lasted for approx 4 hours which is normal,

Separted koi at 10.00am. kept female separte for a few hours to recover. but not in breeding tank as she would have eaten all her eggs by then. :-)

left eggs to harden. and dosed malichite in evening to tank to reduce fungus growth on non fertile eggs.

Just wait too see now how many fertile eggs i have. hopefully tomorrow might start to see which ones are staying clear coloured.

heater is kept in tank to keep temp up above 20c.

daphnia adults was put together to produce live baby daphnia for when baby koi hatch and require live food. (see next post for daphnia culture)

Here is a few of my other koi in main pond.

My huge female chagoi. 32inch. she is heavy in eggs in picture. wont be using her to breed this year. will let rest of fish flock spawn in main pond.

few more pics of last years spawn

Here is a few more pics of last years spawn.

Last years koi spawn

Here is a few pictures of my last years spawn.

Koi paired up was female doitsu sanke and male kohaku.

Some lovely sanke and kohaku are in small back garden pond now ready for viewing. the rest of the spawn has gone to some firms around east anglia.

As you can hopefully see there is some lovely sumi and a couple of tancho kohaku which look very promising. fingers crossed over this summer as they grow on.

I have paired up same 2 koi this year along with extra a class showa.

Only have picture of kohaku male here. see other posts for female.

My japanese garden and main koi pond.

Heres a few pictures of my garden and main koi pond.