BranMuffin
Koi Kichi
Jul 1, 2003, 2:13 AM
Post #8 of 9
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Re: [LadyDrifter] When and How? what do I need?
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A female koi will develop eggs and once they're ready to breed you'll know it, because the males will start chasing it around. If you have the proper breeding medium i.e. String Algae, plants with long roots or leaves, then the males will start slapping the female around literally. This forces the eggs out and since the eggs has a sticky substance on the outside, they will start clinging to anything, sides of your pond, breeding medium etc. Then the males go around and fertilize the eggs as they begin releasing their sperm.
The little eggs look like small salmon eggs. They are round and have an clear exterior. If you look closely, you will see a black dot or a pair of black dots inside these jelly type eggs ... those are the eyes of the fry.
Permitting weather (and pond) conditions, they eggs will begin to hatch within a week and continue for about 5-8 days. The Fry's are about 1/16" in size and they try to remain within the breeding medium for protection.
Addtional Notes:
A Female Koi can lay up to 250,000 eggs. But nature has a way of reducing this size down considerably.
1) When the eggs are laid, it becomes a feeding frenzy with all the other fish including the parents. So immediately, you will lose about 2/3rds of them.
2) About 1/2 of the remaining eggs will not get fertilized and die while the others from other causes such as bacterial infection. These eggs are White in color (instead of clear) and some of them will be covered with tiny fuzz. (Rotten Eggs!)
3) More of the remaining eggs will be sucked in by the pump.
4) When the Fry's hatch, some of them are dumb enough to go out into the open and becomes food for the other fish. While still others will try and hide into the drain .. the suction area of the pump.
This is basically how things go in the Koi World. Some people will purposely put in some fake breeding medium such as clean Mop Heads. And once the breeding is over, they will take that out and put it into a sterilized tank for hatching. This way, they can save more fish.
The breeding usually takes place in the early morning hours (between 5-9 am). You can't mistaken it because they really make a lot of splash and the female is beat up pretty good. If the female is weak to begin with, it could cause them to die.
One curious thing about Koi is that when the Fry gets to be about 1/2" in length, the adult koi seems to leave them alone. Don't know about Goldfish. It's like they recognize that it's one of them and not food.
Oh yes, breeding can destroy your plants.
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 Jul 1, 2003, 2:17 AM)
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