BranMuffin
Koi Kichi
May 3, 2003, 7:03 AM
Post #3 of 5
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Re: [Barb] The "mess" spawning leaves
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Water Hyacints is not a good spawning medium. It will create a mess! A very BIG mess as it dies and begins to rot, and the roots will clog up your filter. What you need is some branches of a tree or a plant (non toxic) that has long leaves. Or leave the long string algae (if you have it) in tack! (LOL!)
When it's time to breed, the male hormone takes over and chases any females that has eggs and the graphic violence begins. The males slaps the female around into the rocks, plants, what have you, forcing the eggs out. How would you like it if your husband knocks you around? You'd probably turn around and slug him! This is rough on the female and a very exhausting experience, and some females die from this.
Once the eggs are out, then the males fertilize the eggs. Not all of the eggs get fertilized, only about 1/2. Incidently, a female koi can lay up to 250,000 eggs, so that's a lot of eggs! The eggs are sticky so they stick to the sides of the pond and any other medium there might be. i.e. Plants, Rocks, Algae etc.
Of course this starts a feeding frenzy with all the rest of the fish and unless you pull some of the eggs out, 2/3 of whats left over will be eaten in no time. The rest will get gobbled up eventually except for the ones that get trapped in areas too small for a fish to go into. Some just gets hidden under the string of algae. This is why professional breeders use a fake medium and a separate breeding tank for breeding koi. To insure that they get most of the eggs out.
Additionally, they can be selective as to what they want to breed. i.e. Kohakus, Sankes, Showas, Ogons ..etc and they generally select ONE female and 2 or 3 males to do this with. The koi come from good stock (parents) but are not what we consider Show Quality. In fact some of them are downright ugly when it comes to patterns, but have excellent color quality. That's all that's necessary. No need to breed Show Quality fish.
Now, where was I? Within a week or two the fertilized eggs will hatch and the tiny little fishes come out. FREEDOM AT LAST! Oh Yea? Not with the other fish around who are searching for food! Most of these little suckers are born with a defensive mechanism which is to hide within the medium they were hatched from. They will TRY and hide within this medium eating microscopic food that are floating around. (Breeders feed them something called "Daphnia" which they raise prior to breeding).
The ones that wonder outside this medium sometimes become "Fish Food" and some of them get sucked up into the pump and into the filtering media and lost.
But the curious thing about koi is that once these little guys get to be about 1/2 to 1" long, the larger koi just leave them alone. It's like they've suddenly discovered that it's one of them.
Even though they're left along they still try and hide, and sometimes ... a nice dark pipe chamber is the best place ... OOOPs, it's the entrance to the drain! "PUMP FOOD!" More fry's lost!
If you're lucky, you'll wind up with a few new fish in your pond when it's all over. Another year and the cycle, starts over again.
Oh BTW: If you used a fake hatching medium, you can take it out 2 weeks after the eggs were laid and before the medium begins to die off and rot. Yes, the little guys/gals hiding in the medium will become exposed. They just have to find other places to hide ... the law of the Jungle!
If you took some of the eggs out to hatch in another area (best to use the same pond water to start with, same environment) they can be fed with the yoke of a boiled egg. But only a little at a time because this will easily deteriorate and rot. Don't want that to happen.
I forgot what the question was? (LOL!) I think it had to do something with spawning, and here I am just rambling away.
Best Regards
Bran
A Koi Pond is never FINISHED, it's always subject to improvement.
Drives the Spouse Crazy!
(This post was edited by BranMuffin on May 3, 2003, 7:33 AM)
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