Koi Spawn
John Howell
May 2000
This was our first year to do some serious koi spawning. The following is a series of photos & description of the process. I want to thank Brett Rowley for his invaluable knowledge and assistance.
I’ll try to post more pictures as I take them. It is almost the end of August right now and we need to cull again. We’ve fought snakes, birds, oxygen problems, temperature swings, and more. It is very easy to understand why a good quality koi is so expensive. Most of the babies end up as fertilizer for the fields. Only a small percentage have the coloring and markings that are considered valuable. Even with the work and experience, watching the tategoi grow is a thrill!
Parent Koi
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- Female Dianichi
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- Female Kaz Takeda
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- Male 1 – Brett Rowley
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- Male 3 – Ogata
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- Male 2 – Nigata
Fertilizing
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- Collecting eggs
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- Bowl of fresh eggs
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- Collecting sperm
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- Incubating in flow through system
Hatching and Transferring Fry
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- Fry 5 days old in incubation tank
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- Bagged and headed to pond
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- New home for fry for the summer
Catching and Culling
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- First seine July 1, 2000 – 2 months old
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- Water snakes eat large numbers of baby koi
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- July 1, 2000 – an interesting baby
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- Sept 2, 2000 – Ginrin Kohaku