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ORSam
Koi Lover

May 26, 2003, 12:04 AM

Post #1 of 6 (758 views)
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Newbie Can't Post
Hi,

I sorta inherited 13 Koi and 2 large goldfish three weeks ago. Let me give you a little background on them. All the Koi are around 15 years old and they are in a 600+ gallon pond with a 500+ gallon pond above it acting as a filtration system (on a slope/hill). The lower (Koi) pond has a small filter suspended from the side of the pond and two airstones. The upper pond has nothing but plants (bog plants/Lilly/etc). A 7-foot bamboo spillway separates the 2 ponds.
Ok so beyond all that here is my question(s). At 10:00am on the 23rd my largest female began spawning. I had assumed that they had already spawned this year and did not have any spawning material ready. So I broke a couple of tree limbs off and weighed them down with bricks. At approx. 11:00am I took the limbs and bricks and put them in a 10-gallon aquarium. I used water from the lower pond to fill the aquarium. I then added malachite green to the water. I have one small airstone in the aquarium and the filter has been removed. Ok I think I'm caught up... At this point it's been 2 days and I have what looks like 1000s of eggs in my aquarium. I can see 2 little black dots in about 1/2 of the eggs. If I look really close every once in a while the little dots will flip over so I'm going to assume the eggs are growing ok since I can see some movement. So on to the big question. What else do I need to do to help the eggs hatch? Should I redose the malachite? I have approx. 50-100 dead pure white eggs and I don't want them to spread anything. They are too close to living eggs to be removed.
I have also been doing 10% water changes every other day in the big pond and the smell is almost gone or I'm just getting use to it. I still have a little bit of white foam on the water under the spillway in the lower pond. Should I wait until the foam/smell is gone before I resume feeding?
I would appreciate any advise as I know little to nothing about Koi other than what I have read here and in the three books the previous owner left.
On a side note these 2 ponds have rubber liners that should be on the downhill side of their life expectancy so I think I'm going to need to redo the ponds. If anyone can suggest any new filters or pond liner materials I would appreciate it. These ponds are on a slope so I think we will get a UV filter for the lower pond and disconnect the spillway so we can do the upper pond first. The ponds are only 18 inches deep so we will probably need to dig them out. How deep should they be? We were thinking around 5-6 feet.
Ok I'm going to stop asking questions… I'm sorry this post is so long.

Thanks in advance,
Samantha


BranMuffin
Koi Kichi


May 26, 2003, 1:20 AM

Post #2 of 6 (753 views)
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Re: [ORSam] Newbie [In reply to] Can't Post
Quote: "So on to the big question. What else do I need to do to help the eggs hatch? Should I redose the malachite? I have approx. 50-100 dead pure white eggs and I don't want them to spread anything. They are too close to living eggs to be removed."

Seems like you've been doing a lot of reading regarding this issue and so far you've done things correctly. But I wouldn't re-dose with Malachite Green because if you over do it, it will kill the eggs. The initial dose of Malachite Green is to kill any existing bacteria which gives the remaining eggs a chance to hatch.

Within the week the eggs should start hatching and will continue for about 8 days. After that you can VERY CAREFULLY remove the breeding material and you should see a bunch of frys darting about.

Try to clean as much of the dead eggs at the bottom of the aquarium out with a siphon tube or something. This will eliminate the decomposing eggs from the bottom.

Get an aeriator and the finest airation stone (tiny bubbles) and aerate the aquarium GENTLY because the small frys are very fragile at this stage. Keep up the water changes, but not more than 10% at a time.

You can even set up a small filtration system, but you will have to figure out a way to keep the small frys from getting sucked into the system. A fine messed net might do.

Once they hatch, you can feed with a TINY (and I mean tiny) bit of yoke from a boiled egg until they get big enough to feed crushed flaked food. If you put too much of the egg yoke in, it will foul up the water, rot and generate diseases.

Congrats and enjoy your new babies.

Best Regards
Bran

A Koi Pond is never FINISHED, it's always subject to improvement.
Drives the Spouse Crazy!


ORSam
Koi Lover

May 26, 2003, 6:33 AM

Post #3 of 6 (745 views)
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Re: [BranMuffin] Newbie [In reply to] Can't Post
Thank you,

I keep going to the tank to make sure all the little eyes are still there. I guess I'm just paranoid that something will go wrong. Not that I need anymore Koi. I'm hoping I'll be able to give some away and once the new pond is ready I'll have 5000 more gallons. So maybe I can keep a few of them (or maybe I'll just have to talk him into a bigger pond). Tongue

Are there any tricks to culling them? I've read that you should only keep the black ones and that ice is the most humane way to do it. I think I have about 1,000-5,000 eggs so even if only 1/2 of them make it I'm going to have to cull a lot or find a bigger pond asap. But I guess I can wait on all that and see if I can get them past the first few weeks in one piece. Smile


BranMuffin
Koi Kichi


May 26, 2003, 7:29 AM

Post #4 of 6 (742 views)
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Re: [ORSam] Newbie [In reply to] Can't Post
Quote "I've read that you should only keep the black ones" Unquote.

That's not exactly true. It depends on what you're trying to cull for. I found that the white/clear ones will sometimes develop into Kohakus (Red and Whites), and it may take a while for their patterns to show up. I also find that the Kohakus are normally the weakest ones and takes quite a bit longer to (develop) show their colors. Mostly, you will probably get Ogons, lots of orange Ogons. Then a bunch of "what's it's" commonly known as "Kawarimonos".

I think you would be lucky if you can get 250 fish out of the eggs that you have. Most of them will die before they can hatch. It all depends on the water and temperature conditions. These little buggers (especially the eggs) are very succeptible to the slightest change in water conditions.

Regards

Bran

Best Regards
Bran

A Koi Pond is never FINISHED, it's always subject to improvement.
Drives the Spouse Crazy!


Alicia
New User

May 26, 2003, 11:28 AM

Post #5 of 6 (734 views)
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Re: [BranMuffin] Newbie [In reply to] Can't Post
 I was woundering if you know any thing about the brown baby fish? I have 10 koi and 1 fan tail gold fish. This is new to me. This is my 2nd pond. But the 1st one I only had for 1 yr. then we moved. this one is almost a year old. I have a lot of brown babies swiming around from 1/8" to 2" I just didn't know if they will every get any color, do you know?


BranMuffin
Koi Kichi


May 26, 2003, 12:36 PM

Post #6 of 6 (733 views)
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Re: [Alicia] Newbie [In reply to] Can't Post
I'm not possitive of this, but I seem to recall that the brown baby fish are goldfish .. and that they will eventually turn. I think I saw this in another pond forum.

Just my best guess

Best Regards
Bran

A Koi Pond is never FINISHED, it's always subject to improvement.
Drives the Spouse Crazy!

 
 
 



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