ATTACHMENTS

Nov 13th 8:08pm

As you can see, the legs needed extending 10 inch, and the actual tunnel needed doors. So from Marks picture and diagram we managed to make some of our own.

Well should I say. I did all the design and measuring, Paul did all the screwing. 

But fingers crossed it will look the part.

And even though it is dark, it lights up fab. Has a big hole at the back yet, where the tunnel doesn’t sit right on the tank, but that is because of the heater in the back and the Backi shower.

Will all look awesome in the end.

Will post temps in a few days although everything is heated.

Dawn

Nov 14th 6:46 am

Thanks,

Temp this morning is 18.6 that is with no doors cut in though and a big gaping hole at the back as it has to fit over the heater and backi shower.

In fact how much of a hole do you need to let out the gasses?

Still got to be good…. will keep an eye on it and get to doors this week.

Dawn

Nov 20th 8:46pm

ATTACHMENTS

Oct 7th 9:10 am

So for most who chat to me in the chat room, you know I have been really poorly this week.

No excuses…. from me.

I didn’t do my duties and clean the filter in the baby pond yesterday, resulting in it becoming blocked and not enough water going through it to be able to heat it properly.

From 23 degrees, the temp plummeted to 14.   

This is a result of the excess algae from last week and my neglect to clean it.

I lost two baby fish, all the others seem okay. But I am unsure as to what the best course of action is, to raise the temperature back up? Or to do it slowly once more. Which will do more harm than good, anyone any ideas. Or am I in the dark on this one?

What a week. Been so ill I can’t focus or do anything, I should have delegated my duties, or carried on and done it myself even if sick.

Lesson learned, it won’t happen again. 

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

August 2nd 6:17 am

Disaster of a morning…. Pump tripped all lecky to baby pond and main pond. Lucky all fish aren’t dead…. Big fish acting up big time. Baby fish all look okay from what I can see. Don’t understand it. So unhappy I have to go to work  No idea how long they didn’t have filter and oxygen for. No food for them today. Cruel to be kind. Daren’t test the water perams on the main pond before I have to leave, had to put trikle of water going in, just hoping that will help them.  so so not good. Things were going okay, now back to square one and then some. Just hoping big fish can cope….

5:49 pm

Ok so home now, big fish acting up a bit, seen three flicking. One really was irritated, our male shiro. Just doing a partial water change to see if that eases them up, Ammonia slightly raised, and as my ph is a bit higer than normal seems that would irritate them.

They’ve had no food today which I think has upset them a bit too. They are hunting for food very very active.

Baby fish are starting to change colour good style, the big black ones are getting white markings and the big orange ones are going much paler.

Very interesting. Captured hundreds on the video today will try and upload it soon 

Please ignore the sound effects and Paul and I talking. lol.

Dawn

July 7th 6:51pm

Wow,

So yeah not much else I can update on there, only that I’ve had to stop pumping out the water, it was chomping too many of the fry. Don’t want to kill them without them getting fair chance.

Still feeding twice a day although a little more. The mix is dried blood worm, secret formula and crushed hikari pellets now. Boy they are growing though.

Turned the air stone off and you can see hundreds of them against the green water. And the water is really green, like stagnant green, with thousands of daphnea and live blood worm. I tested the water peram tonight and there is zero nitrite and ammonia! how I have no idea, but something is working. Hoping it stays like that till sat when we’re drilling the drain hole into the qt so we can fit a small valve. That way when I sieve the babies they won’t be going through any chomper. In the next few weeks I’ll be sieving them straight into the net so we can eventually turn on the filter and heater, get them growing more.

All is good though, although I have no idea what are what, there are black fish. Which, when you look closer at them they look more like dotted fish. The others were clear, but now are more yellow. There are however some which have black spots on them, or some which have a stripe down their side.

My favourite which I’ve caught three times so far is a big yellow fish with a black head. It really stands out from the rest. I want to keep this one, if I can find it again lol…. when we net the whole qt.

So plans are as follows, grow, grow,   grow….   

D

June 8th 8:33pm

Yeah got the new valve fitted, so easy to drain without the chomper…… even better.

Temp is a bit cooler, but hope to get the heater on soon…. once they’re a bit bigger.

Water changes and food for the win though… they are growing like mad… love it.

Dawn 

July 11th 4:01pm

I know, all good stuff.

Drain works a treat, got the qt back to its normal level. So tried it out today, tomorrow might be the first real test though. Just got to wash out the pipe with clean water to make sure no babies are stuck in it. But other than that, no more chomper.    

They’re defo getting bigger, starting to chase the daphnea around now and you can see them trying to eat em. Don’t think they’ll be many left by the end of the week. Least it has been something extra for them to eat. 

Looking good though, can’t wait to get them even bigger still and see how they do turn out next year. Amazing that something so tiny can grow so fast.

D

July 16th 11:52am

Update this week, the drain is a treat, makes it so much easier to clean the water down.

Apart from the rain last few days, its been hot and the babies are doing great. When I drain now. I’m lucky if I get 20 out through he sieve. All the others are around the bottom….

But WOW how big they are! I caught one to show the family and it was massive. Huge big fat belly on it.  I am chuffed. There are still some small ones, but I don’t care, they are awesome.

Can’t wait to see them in a few more weeks….

D

10:05pm

It defo hasn’t been an easy few weeks. But I’ve learned a lot. Nature has had a good part in it. The blood worm are eating some of the rubbish in the water, the daphnea are as well. Now the baby koi are also eating the bloodworm and daphnea. The cycle of life is amazing. I didn’t even know that bloodworm were flys till Paul said. Now it all fits together perfect and they help each other out. Don’t think that they will last much longer though the koi are getting too big.

Mon August 1st 6:11am

4:34pm

Of course, I will watch it.  thanks.

Also just wondering what else I can do to get the nitrite level down… I can put in some Nite out, that could help. Doing another big water change today, but hoping that it will settle. No food this afternoon Paul already fed them, so cutting back. Even for the big fish…. got to be done, don’t want any of them over fed while we’re away.

Putting in some Sansai to both today, think that will help both sets of fish.

Less than a week to go…

Dawn

7:43pm

A new video of the babies, qt pond half empty, sorry about the bubbles and the noise. If you turn it off they scarper away.

Enjoy. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wOFnJs8OHk

Ps watch out for the big black one. x