We're having fun with an attempt at homegrown koi in the back yard. We had many unplanned grouped spawns over the years, until we removed the plants from the main pond. We also once selected a few koi for an intentional spawn a few years ago, but this is our first intentional spawn in which the fry have lived. We are not looking to grow koi to sell or take to shows. We just hope to get a few that look good to us. Most breeders would likely match up koi that are much more alike, to maximize the number of sale-quality or show-quality koi. But at least for this year we decided to mix it up a little, with different varieties, and see what we get, partly because we've only got a few koi to pick from, and partly out of curiousity. Next year (2013 spawning), we will probably try more conventional pairings.
These three pictures of the parents were taken just after the Memorial Day spawning. First there's Cosmos (21", 3-year old, female Hariwake) slimmed down. Then the males, Neosho (23", 5-year old, Kujaku) & Moses (24", 9-year old, Kohaku). Then Lazarus (17", 6-year old, Showa) & Lester (20", 5-year old, Kin Kikokuru). All those selected are Doitsu scaled, but the female and only two of the males are metallic. The female and the male Kohaku are linear scaled, and the other three males are leather. The fry are of all scale varieties, which tells us the female has SsNn genes, not SSNn.
First spawning attempt: The night of 5/18/2012, I moved these 4 koi (the ones above except for Lester) from the 11,000 gallon main pond to the 1700 gallon pond shown below with evening water temperature at 72 degrees. The pond has sloped sides and is well established, having held two or more adult koi for more than a year. It has a 3200 gph pump with a 100 gallon filter and a small waterfall. I put the two pictured spawning ropes in the pond, one under the waterfall and one on the opposite side, with 4 plastic plants out in the middle. The water level was about 3" below the level shown in the picture. I also covered the pond with a net.
The weather cooled a little in the next few days, with morning water temperatures about 69 degrees. Even with water changes, they did not spawn, perhaps because it was a little too cool? On 5/23, I removed the female.
Second spawning attempt: The night of 5/25/2012, I moved Cosmos back in with the males, Moses, Neosho, and Lazarus, with the evening water temperature at 75 degrees. Still no luck, so on 5/26, I considered adding another female to the mix, to try to improve the odds. I added another koi, Esther, a Kin Kikokuru that I was about 80% sure was female. On 5/28/2012, Memorial Day, with morning water temp 71 (previous evening temperature 75) the koi showed heightened activity at 6:00 am and as it got more serious, it became clear that "Esther" was really "Lester". Not only was he a male, but he was the most aggressive, and the spawning instigator. Hey, whatever works. Cosmos started laying eggs around 7:00 am. She focused on spawning rope by waterfall, with little regard to other rope and no regard to the plastic plants in middle of pond or the rest of the pond. I took the koi out at noon. They were still a little active, though I don't think there were really any eggs left to lay.
Here are some action photos from the spawning. In the last picture, Lester is airborne!
Here are four very short (4-10 second) MPG action video clips from the spawning:
Spawning Video 1 *
Spawning Video 2 *
Spawning Video 3 *
Spawning Video 4
After the spawning, I changed out about 60% of water with water from the big pond without lowering water level in the spawning pond. I raised the water level 3", but left it a few inches low for aeriation. After a day, some of the eggs turned from tan to white. The ones that remained tan colored (roughly 2/3 of them) were the fertilized ones. Ammonia and nitrite were not a problem, with the ammonia peaking at 0.2 ppm the evening of 5/28, and nitrite peaking at 0.35 ppm the evening of 5/30. By the afternoon of 6/3, these had declined to 0 and 0.05 ppm respectively.
By 7:00 pm on 5/30, the eggs had hatched in less than 60 hours, with thousands of fry alive and sitting on side slopes of pond. At this point they were still feeding on their yoke sacks. I netted out about half the eggs & remove the spawning ropes to help with water quality. There were quite a few dead fry among the eggs (perhaps due to about 25% having the NN gene pair). I added bubblers to increase aeriation. By 6:00 pm 6/1, many of the of the fry seemed to be free swimming (having consumed their yoke sacks). I don't know if it is really necessary to feed them at this stage in an already established pond, but just in case, I began to feed about 3/4 Tbsp pablum & 1/2 Tbsp crushed koi pellets 3-4 times a day, gradually increasing crushed koi pellets. (It took 41 days to finish the 8 oz pablum box).
Below are photos of some of the fry taken 6/3/2012, 4 days after hatching. They are roughly 5/16" to 3/8" long. Most look yellow, but a few seem white, and a few have a good bit of black on them. And at this point, there are thousands of them, and they seem roughly the same size.
Below are photos taken 6/6/2012, 7 days after hatching. They are roughly 5/16" to 7/16" long. You can already see that some have grown substantially more than others. Ammonia and nitrite levels have dropped to zero.
Below are photos taken 6/17/2012, Day 18. They are roughly 3/8" to 5/8" long, and getting a little thicker on average. Some have emerging black markings. Otherwise, colors are similar to Day 7.
Started culling (only for deformities) after 4 weeks. Started moving most of the Tobi (larger fry eating siblings) into a separate floating basket after a month. After 5 weeks, there are roughly 800 -1200 fry.
Day 42, 7/11/2012, at 6 weeks old, here is a picture of the Tobi (unculled), which are 1-1/8" - 2":
And here is a picture of some from the majority of the fry (culled only for deformities), which are mostly 5/8" - 7/8", with some only 1/2":
Here is a platinum Tobi that I missed, stalking the little ones:
Day 44, many new Tobi have appeared in the pond. I released the 50 plus Tobi from the basket, and moved the small fry to the basket, leaving in the pond those medium sized fry that I felt sure would were too large for a Tobi to eat. As the small fry get large enough, I moved them from the floating basket into the pond.
Day 65, 8/3/2012, the size of the fry varies greatly. The majority in the pond range from 1-1/8" - 4", but there are still quite a few little 5/8" - 7/8" fry in the protective basket. A large number of the fry are one solid color, even though all of the adults had distinct patterns. Yellow is most common, with some orange and some white. There are also many other varieties in the mix. Here are some photos of a few of the more interesting fry. These are roughly 2" - 3":
Day 87, 8/25/2012, here are some pictures of the fry which now range from 1" - 5 1/2", though most are 2" - 4". All are in the pond now, with the protective basket removed.
July 21, 2013 update: They are now about 14 months old. After more culling due to deformities et cetera of over the winter and spring and a few losses to predators, only five remain from the 2012 spawning. The only ones we are considering keeping longer term (pictured below) are the ki kujaku, the platinum (fully scaled), and maybe the orange hariwake (linear scaled Doitsu). They are about 10" to 12" now, and noting their robust build, I think they are each female.
We are pretty happy with the results, though not doing hand-springs. Being our first serious attempt at this, we were actually pleased when the fry survived their first week out of the eggs. It was disappointing to have seen such a high percentage of deformities, mostly crooked tails and backs. But when we began, we were just hoping to get a few that we would like to keep. So we've at least achieved that, and we've learned a lot in the process. And, we've got new fry from our 2013 attempt at an ochiba / soragoi spawn. So it all continues ....