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  1. #1
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    14crazychris's journey to raise a grand champion

    So I've finished uni for the summer and am aiming to raise some koi fry (round 2). The title is a joke but you never know what you're going to get. I am aiming to spawn my koi, originally was going to select individuals and inject them with GnrH (Gonadatrophin releasing hormone) but at £100 a vile it was too costly. Next idea was to separate some individuals and place them into a vat or tank, however I realised I had nothing big enough for the fish in question. So plan c was to do a flock spawning in the pond and hope for something colourful or different to come out. So I have 10 fish 8 females and 2 males however I think I have discovered that my asagi is actually female which is great apart from the fact that I am down to one male and 9 females now lol. I ideally want the Marutan Sanke and Showa to spawn but it's likely to be a mix I think.

    I have placed my home made spawning mops into the pond with five air stones to hopefully trigger them into action. Only put them in today but hopefully something will happen within the coming days.


    I have also set up my fry tank which is a 1000ltr ibc tank with an Oase box filter, 500 micron screen and then full of alphagrog for biological filtration. If needed I also have a 1800l fibreglass tank as well.


    This will house 3 floating nets which I have also made. I will have all the fry in the largest one once they hatch and then they can be graded into the correct floating net. After a few selections and the length of 2/3cm has been reached I will let them free into the tank. I have no UV on the tank at the moment as I want to water to go green, this will reduce stress levels for the fry as well as providing food for daphnia, which I aim to release under the floating nets, so they can breed. Once the fry are released they will have a feeding frenzy. This may not go to plan as they might be sucked up by the pump, but we will see.


    Once the fry hatch I will feed them on Artemia for 1/2 weeks or longer depending how long it takes me to use up all the Artemia eggs I have. They will ideally be fed this four times a day within the floating nets. After this they will be weaned onto the fine fry food I have. Below is my Artemia hatchery I have created. Every 24hrs I will fill up a new bottle to hatch the fresh Artemia, to create a cycle between batches.


    I have made my own fry nets for selections to aim to keep the cost of the project down, and use my DIY skills. I am aiming to end up with about 20/30 nice coloured koi but will see what happens, want to keep the stocking density as low as possible. Not sure what I will do with the keepers over winter but will see about that. Look forward to see any ideas or options people have on this/ my setup. Will keep this thread updated with all the details and progress. I will also be making videos of the process for my YouTube channel- Chriskoi

    Crossing my fingers that the fish will spawn otherwise this might be a boring thread lol.

    Cheers Chris


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  3. #2
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion anne's Avatar
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    looks like a very interesting thread Chris, but those bricks on the pond wall that your
    spawning brushes are attached to are freaking me out, could you put them on the ground
    over the pond wall so they don't get dragged into the pond and do any damage to your fish
    or the pond, once the spawning starts it will get a bit hectic I expect and I would hate to see any
    damage done after all your hard work . Good luck with it all.

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  5. #3
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    Thanks for your response! Good point didn’t think about that. Have put the bricks either side of the net now so they can’t be pulled into the pond, they are securing the net on both sides as seen below. Also attached is a picture of the fry nets I made.
    Cheers



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  7. #4
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion anne's Avatar
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    That's better Chris, I will be able to sleep easy tonight now and not worry .
    love all your DIY skills and you have every thing well thought out here's hoping for that grand champion.

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  9. #5
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    Thanks haha good, yeah will be selling all the fry that I don’t want. Just to help with costs of purchasing everything. Not expecting much at all though. Just would be nice to end up with 5 nicely coloured good fish that I have produced my self. All a bit of fun in the end
    Cheers Chris


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  11. #6
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    I like it Chris doing a great job with your diy skills,would like to see how you did the three holding nets and what sort of material you used and where you get it.

    Good luck with the spawning and keep in touch.
    John

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  13. #7
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    Thanks for your reply. For the holding nets I used this fabric from eBay


    I also used this for the fry nets, I also purchased these 20mm bends


    And then purchased 20mm conduit from wicked which is 99p for a 2m length which I required 3 of. Cable ties were then used to hold the net in place. Think it cost about £17 for all 3 which was significantly cheaper then buying 3 pre-made koi ones. They aren't as good as the ones you can buy obviously, but will due to the job for me I think.
    Cheers


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  15. #8
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    Chris do you have a link for the netting?
    John

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  17. #9
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    Cant work out how to attach a link but if you copy the item number below into the ebay search bar you will find it
    Cheers

    201607648164


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  19. #10
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    Great thanks Chris.
    John

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  21. #11
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Davej's Avatar
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    Good luck with it Chris; it is crazy hard work raising fry.

    If you can try and separate a pair then it would make things a load easier; you are going to be limited in terms of how many you can raise, having some idea of what you are hoping for ie the parents would help no end in deciding which fry to retain. Its one reason I breed Showa, straight away 3 out of 4 hatched fry that are yellow are discards. But in 2000 gallons I can only retain about 20% of the total hatched fry from a set so the retains are 25% black of 20% hatched - 5% of total. Ok my primary female drops a lot of eggs but the message is retain too many and it messes the chances of success for all.

    If you treat the hatching tank with the brushes in with Methylene Blue powder at 1ppm (1gm in 1000L) 18 hours after spawning you will keep fungus at bay and greatly increase the hatch out rate.

    How much artemia do you have at hand? the hatchery looks like its been well crafted, mine are rough and ready but in 1.7L of water with 30ml of salt I add a teaspoon of cysts and at 28C there is decent hatch.

    Dave

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  23. #12
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    Cheers for your response dave! Very helpful! Unfortunately there has been no action at all. Think the only way would be to drop the water level very low, however I’m gravity fed so this isn’t possible at all. I agree I need to put them into a vat to spawn which I don’t have. I’m debating wether it’s worth all the effort or wether I should just purchase some fry to experiment with :/ I have a large handful of Artemia which are from Zm foods so good quality. It’s a tricky situation but my kujaku is bursting with eggs and need to spawn it or I’m not sure what else to do. Bit of a dilemma
    Cheers Chris


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  24. #13
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Davej's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 14crazychris View Post
    Cheers for your response dave! Very helpful! Unfortunately there has been no action at all. Think the only way would be to drop the water level very low, however I’m gravity fed so this isn’t possible at all. I agree I need to put them into a vat to spawn which I don’t have. I’m debating wether it’s worth all the effort or wether I should just purchase some fry to experiment with :/ I have a large handful of Artemia which are from Zm foods so good quality. It’s a tricky situation but my kujaku is bursting with eggs and need to spawn it or I’m not sure what else to do. Bit of a dilemma
    Cheers Chris



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    A vat does make things very easy..

    Pity as I have already thinned the numbers down to what I hope I can take to 2".

    Hopefully you will get a result; I might encourage a high class Kohaku to spawn in a couple of weeks time, if I do happy to hatch out some eggs for you..

    Dave

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    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    Thanks very much! Sounds great, will have a think, need to decide what to do. Not sure what will happen if my kujaku goes into winter full of eggs. If you did hatch the eggs from the Kohaku how would I get the eggs, would have to be delivered unfortunately.
    Cheers


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  27. #15
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Davej's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 14crazychris View Post
    Thanks very much! Sounds great, will have a think, need to decide what to do. Not sure what will happen if my kujaku goes into winter full of eggs. If you did hatch the eggs from the Kohaku how would I get the eggs, would have to be delivered unfortunately.
    Cheers


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    You have enough by way of stimulants in there to encourage her, she will spawn if she is able, only thought from a H&S to the koi angle is whether there is too much tension in the relatively thin line holding the mops, chance of damage, would be maybe just run them along the end of the pond?

    Timing wise there is a good time left for the Kujaku to go, what temp is the water at?

    Kohaku- we can cross that bridge if needed.

    Dave

    Dave

  28. #16
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    Ok, well I took the mops out in the mean time as it was causing dirt to collect on the top. I can let them float loosely so they can float around as a large clump, might be a better idea. Pond is at 22 degrees at the moment but probably will go up from here. My largest tank is 1.4m squared, think this will be too small for 2/3 Fish to spawn in? The Showa is 72cm, sanke 65cm and kujaku about 70cm. Otherwise it’s a vat or swimming pool option?

    Cheers Chris


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  29. #17
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Davej's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 14crazychris View Post
    Ok, well I took the mops out in the mean time as it was causing dirt to collect on the top. I can let them float loosely so they can float around as a large clump, might be a better idea. Pond is at 22 degrees at the moment but probably will go up from here. My largest tank is 1.4m squared, think this will be too small for 2/3 Fish to spawn in? The Showa is 72cm, sanke 65cm and kujaku about 70cm. Otherwise it’s a vat or swimming pool option?

    Cheers Chris


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    Yes agree with you, 1.4m square is a bit too small.

    Having something for them to drop their eggs on is pretty essential so I would be leaving the mops in; one other trick is to spray a light mist of water onto the pond surface overnight.

    Dave

  30. #18
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion 14crazychris's Avatar
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    Ok cheers, will put them back in and try that. Otherwise will try and think of a solution for what to put them in.
    Cheers


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  31. #19
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion voodoo_15_uk's Avatar
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    Hi chris.
    I spawned mine in a 2m pool that about 1.5feet deep. 1/2 Filled it with brushes. Had fresh dechlorinated water in with a pump to a heater then set at 21C.

    They all spawned within 24-48hrs.

    2 males to one female.


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  32. #20
    Massive water change always gets mine 'Jiggy'.

    If we've got high pressure weather due, do a big change the night before. Bam. Eggs everywhere.

    But, If you've got a lot of males and only one female, they're going to beat the hell out of her

 

 
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