..., and lets hope the name bodes well and I harvest some decent koi in a few weeks time.
Both fry ponds now in use, and got the last batch of shiro fry into the fry pond this evening. Then an hour with the jet wash in the dark cleaning down the tanks and brushes....
Picked up some fry food this morning, and started feeding it to my kohaku fry this evening. Actually saw a couple of fry come to see what this new stuff was that I'd put into the pond!
Some pics from today:
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| In the spawning vat, just before being syphoned out; you can see more clearly on this pic than the ones from yesterday the split between black and non-black fry. I didnt have time for kuroku, but it is frustrating to know I've put some white fry into the fry pond, and they are just taking up space that could be better used by one of the black fry. I may draft in some help next year for the kuroku |
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| I stop the syphon with just a couple of liters or so left, then move the hoses to a pond with clean water to continue the syphoning and to wash any fry still in the hoses into the fry ponds. The last few fry get the red carpet treatment and my daughter and I carried them to the pond and introduced them into the pond this evening. |
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| In they go. And, I could also see lots of fry that I introduced into the pond the previous night |
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| You'll have to take my word for it. Most of the white flashes are koi fry. |
Next steps will be to tidy up the polytunnel, and set up the growing on tank for the fry - I intend to grow them on in the polytunnel after first selection when they should be 1 inch long.
I have a few more females with eggs, and I'll save some of them for a possible second spawning and fry pond rearing later this summer. The others I'll spawn over the next few weeks, and that will give me a chance to tweak the spawning process and try out a few things I have in mind to streamline the cleaning and moving of the hatchlings. It will also clear out any old eggs from those females so they have a fresh batch next year which should improve the fertisation rates.
