What is it with the weather this March? I'm being delayed by the low temperatures but at least I have a more comfortable working environment now the tunnel's up.
The Oval 1 tank is holding at 6 degrees in the polytunnel and I'm maintaining 12 degrees in the temporary tank which still holds my whole koi collection.
I went on a road trip with Tim Morphy from Kangei Koi Club to collect some fish yesterday. I had a few males waiting for me at Yume Koi that Mike Snaden found on his Autumn 2012 Japan trip, and Tim had a koi to collect from a fellow hobbyist based near to Yume Koi. So we made for the west country and ended up spending around 3 hours with Mike at Yume Koi!. I've visited a few times and this was Tim's first visit - and it's a very easy way to spend time talking koi with Mike and perusing his collection.
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| Bred by Takigawa, these are male sanke and yamabuki. Takigawa used brood stock made up from Momotaro Mako blood line for his male, and Momotaro Ryu blood line for the female. The yamabuki's brood stock originate from Izumiya. |
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| A male showa and kohaku |
The seneye readings on the temporary tank show the biological media is maturing, and I'll use that to seed the more extensive filtration in the polytunnel.
I've planned roughly where I am going to install the tanks and filtration in the tunnel:
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| I'll use the free area at the bottom of the plan for the spawning tanks, which are show vats that are quick and easy to put up and take down. They are 3m diameter and will take up much of that "spare" space. The tunnel is a reasonable size, but it's still a juggling act to fit everything I need into it. |
And finally, here are few pictures of the snow covered ponds and polytunnel.
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| It's luck the poly tunnel cover went on before this patch of wintery weather. |
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| Looking towards the tunnel across "Horseshoe" fry pond |
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| The temporary tank; it's simple but effective even in these conditions |
Today, I'm off to Avenue Fisheries to see how my daughter and I got on in the Kangei Koi Club winter grow and show. One of my female kohaku's won reserve grand champion at the Kangei Koi Club Garden Show last year, and that won me an Avenue Fisheries voucher, which may get used today too.
