micky
Koi Lover
Jan 9, 2004, 9:29 AM
Post #2 of 4
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Re: [zacdl] Breeding Koi. HOW????
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Hi zacdl - you are in for some great fun (and hardwork!). Its not too difficult to breed your own kois. Here's what I did - 1) select 1 good female to 2 good males. The fishes should be >1 year old and at least 35cm long. 2) Prepare a FG tank about 4x6x3ft, 2 to 4 airstones, 4 to 8 bunches of spawning ropes to hang along side of tank, I use green raffia strings. 3) make sure water & temperature condition is perfect, i use filtered water taken from main pond, temp about 20-25C. 4) move the selected kois carefully with a sock net to the tank and cover the tank with a net, make sure the net will hold down the thrashing koi during mating. The kois should mate within 1 to 3 days or else something is wrong somewhere. If you want to be certain, select 2 females instead of 1, the males has rough cheeks which are nodules for nudging the females during courtship. It's exhilarating to watch the mating & spawning so don't miss this ritual. 5) Remove the kois immediately back to pond after spawning is completed, if any kois is hurt or damaged then separate them in a quarantine tank with 3% salt for a day or so. 6) use a siphon to remove any lint or debris and change 50% water, again make sure that this water is well prepared in advance 7) for the next few days, keep maintaining the water changing daily about 30% until little or no fishy smell, the eggs should hatch within 3 to 5 days. 8) no feeding to the fries is necessary for about 5 to 7 days, but you can try some finely grounded pallet food to see if they start to feed. 9) the fries will canalize the weaker ones but you may want this to continue until they are about 1cm long, then start to select the larger ones from the smaler ones to separate tanks 10) when they are about 2 cm long you may want to start select the best ones and cull those that are deformed. Just remember that you cannot keep all of them, if you don't want to hurt the small fellows, just put them in cold water and continue to add ice until they pass out. I feed these comatozed fries to the adult kois. 12) continue to use the siphon to remove uneaten food and keep the water in tip-top condition, this is the tedious part which you must do 2 to 3 times a day. Feed the fries in small doses about 5 times a day. Breeding kois is a great experience but the eventual number you can keep depend on your physical limits. After a few good attempts you may become a dealer! Good luck! Oh yes, go read some books on the subject before you start. Cheers!
Regards, Micky
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