Hey everyone,

So back off our holidays and the koi fry are so much bigger. There are several different sizes still in there, from two fry which are 2 inches to some which are still under 1cm.

I am in a bit of a dilemma really, because I can see fry which are deformed, but I’ve been having problems in catching those separately.

I can only think due to the .03mg level of nitrite (just off yellow) that I really do need to half my fish quantity and to do this I need to prepare myself to catch them all and start the process of sorting through all of them.

I have no idea how I am going to manage this, I only have a swimming pool which is in vast need of a clean (my mums smaller one) and a much bigger one. I have one blue bowl and a few buckets, but this won’t be enough to catch all the koi in.

Ideally, I need to separate the bigger ones now, although I am sure that they aren’t eating the smaller ones, I can’t be sure. Besides I need to give the smaller ones time to grow and the only chance I have for that is a net which will keep the big fish out from the little ones.

I am looking for homes for some of these, but think they’re still too small for big ponds.

If I can’t house them before winter, I am thinking of perhaps a large flotation net in the main pond and can only hope they don’t jump out… wondering if that would even work…. or would they just all end up in my filter 

So much to think about. I had no idea so many would live. Approx 2000 in a 800 gallon qt pond. The water perams are pretty perfect but the nitrite. And I’ve been told that is due to the glucose in the food which we are feeding. Can’t get away from it, so still doing big water changes and adding in Sansai to help them cope with it.

When we got back off holiday the nitrite was .3mg and most of the fish were sat on the bottom pretty stressed out and flicking.

Now they are all swimming around actively seeking food and only the odd one is flicking. Hard to think that such a tiny fish would still be able to bounce off the bottom of the pond…. poor things.

So, a good few bits of planning to do over the next couple of weeks. Not going to be easy to net all these koi, but we’re going to have to.

How is everyone else doing with their babies?

I’ll try and get a new video uploaded, because there are some cracking fry. The two bigger ones, one I am sure is a Kohaku, It has orange head, white body, orange tail and slight orange markings coming through and the other bigger fry is white, with a black spot on its head. Nice, we also have some black orange and white fry which I am hoping will be showa, the others are like a grey black, but the black is patchy, I presume these will be Shiro…. Exciting to see them develop though… can’t wait till they are much bigger.

But need to get rid of those ones with bent tails and deformed lips etc.

Speak soon guys, thanks for listening.

Dawn

Sep 1st 6:34

Hey there,

So electrition has been today and sorted out the qt pond finally. Now both heaters are working on main pond and baby pond. YEY!

So now they can grow like mad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79OZ7Ev_0fY&NR=1

Here is one I caught today which has a kink in its tail. But we need the room for the really good ones and some are looking fab now. So it had to go. My step dad wouldn’t bin it though it went in his garden water bucket to see if it survives. I doubt it. Too cold on its own.

Oh well, happy days. I want them all to grow quicker now. So we can home them before the winter.

Speak later.

Dawn

First cull complete.

Sep 24th 3:11pm

Hey there,

So electrition has been today and sorted out the qt pond finally. Now both heaters are working on main pond and baby pond. YEY!

So now they can grow like mad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79OZ7Ev_0fY&NR=1

Here is one I caught today which has a kink in its tail. But we need the room for the really good ones and some are looking fab now. So it had to go. My step dad wouldn’t bin it though it went in his garden water bucket to see if it survives. I doubt it. Too cold on its own.

Oh well, happy days. I want them all to grow quicker now. So we can home them before the winter.

Speak later.

Dawn

5:22pm

Hi Mr M,

Thanks, yeah netting wasn’t much fun. But the first one is over.

We’re feeding them now on a mix of crushed and ground Hikari growth and colour 2 mm pellets. Ground dried daphnea, blood worm and brine shrimp. Mixed with pond water and a good dose of Sansai. Most of the koi are chomping the full 2m pellets now. But some are still too small so they’re eating the crushed ones. 

All in all a very good mix, but you got to be first to the balls to get enough to eat. I guess some just weren’t. So now there is less competition for the food, and heat. They should be all fine. But I’ll keep an eye on them and see how it goes over the next few weeks.

How are yours doing? we need more videos to learn from. Culling them isn’t easy. But they’ll grow on for someone else now. If they survive the winter. 

D

6:25pm

They love the blood worm and other mix. Fingers crossed they will improve over the next week or so. Went down to holmeswood and his fry are 4 weeks older than mine and are 5-6 inches they are amazing! I need to get mine to that size….

But it is all a learning curve, I couldn’t have coped with too many more, so in one sense I’m glad the ones in the bowl didn’t survive, there would have been around 30k more far too many for me to rear. What I have are good. Some real nice ones. Will bring them on now and see what happens, what they look like. Some are really nice already, gotta keep those ones. 

Good luck with yours, you’re doing amazing as well. For both as a first time we’ve done exceptionally good. Proud of us both mate. x

D