how to Breeding Koi Fish and taking care of Baby Koi - pond - showa aquarium

At this stage they have been considered to have some potential for staff. This is a long and arduous task and at least eight people are doing this job every day for most of the entire summer season. Everyone takes turns doing this job. and even Kenturo, his father and his uncle, are happy to collaborate and contribute their grain of sand. Each and every staff member is given a counter so there is a record of exactly how many koi have been selected. This data is invaluable for years to come. Once again, aeration is used heavily throughout to aid the overall well-being of the coin.

Kentaro explained that in this kohaku variety the most important factor was that there was some type of red pigmentation visible on the head of any koi without this it would be immediately discarded. All kohaku of any size should have some type of marking on the head. Kenturo took the time to show us exactly what he meant. All of these koi have been selected to grow and if you focus on any one in this network, you will clearly see that each one has some type of head marking even more koi to have a perfect body shape and fantastic skin without a decent pattern it would be unsellable although the colors are faint you can still see them under the skin and over time hopefully we will notice the size difference too but the very small ones are still suitable.

Only very small koi that have some kind of defect would be discarded for being too small, even though all of these koi come from the exact same spawn. Is incredible. Seeing the difference in body size and shape at this stage is also not important unless the koi has a disproportionately large head that quickly narrows into a very thin body. Approximately three quarters of these fry will not make it past this first cart, while the selected ones will. Those kept after that point are housed in the large sakkai tozei facilities to grow in for the rest of the summer.

Kenturo stressed time and time again that only those timid ones with some semblance of red on the head would be kept. You can see how even the smallest ones have been selected. The staff are very strict about the koi they discard if they have any doubts about whether the koi is suitable or will not be rejected The farm believed that it is the severity of the smut that allows such high quality koi to emerge about a year later. Overstocking a fry

pond

is a big no no, they need as much space per

fish

as possible. The importance of this operation.

It cannot be underestimated, it is fundamentally vital to the development of the sakai koi and is the main reason why summer on the farm will always be the busiest time of the year as we have seen newborn

fish

enter the fry

pond

s with just a few days old. and remain there for approximately 40 days before being collected in a storage tank and returned to the farm. About 75 percent of those fry are chilled, as the staff chooses only those that show any signs of becoming potentially salable nishikigoi from here on out. the remaining quarter returned to the fry ponds for another 20 days.

This is a pond of sanki about to undergo his second sacrifice. It is approximately three or four centimeters long. You will notice a lot of black on their bodies, something that is a characteristic of those who put them in a fry pond and something that will disappear quite quickly when the fish are brought indoors for the winter. What exactly is the chemistry of water that causes such an amount of sumi? Kenturo wasn't sure, but he speculated that it was probably due to something in the natural mud at the bottom. Of the ponds, while man-made with concrete sides, the bottoms are completely natural, giving the koi access to minerals that occur naturally at the bottom of the pond.

Kentero admitted, however, that sanki were not as easy to breed or slaughter as some of the other varieties whose success rate was generally not as high. Sanki as a whole, while still one of the big three varieties of gosanki, have actually declined in prominence over the past five years, but this year the all-Japan show, for example, the top five koi. If it were kohaku or

showa

without a single sanki in sight, the staff is

care

ful to ensure that the net is right at the edge of the pond and that all the koi are collected once inside the fish house, the laborious task of selecting another pond.

The collection of fry begins at all times of the year, the staff at the sakai fish farm works incredibly hard, certainly in the autumn time, when collection from the mud ponds needs to be carried out and the farm itself is flooded with visitors from the four corners of the world, nothing more. It is compared to summer time, when the process of spawning and slaughter is the main task. All staff are able to carry out slaughter correctly, thanks to the training they receive from the farm's management team, but to try to minimize what, after all, is a very laborious process.

Staff are on a work rotor of jobs that need to be done, this ensures that each and every member of staff stays as fresh and motivated as possible. They clearly worked very hard, but they are treated well and there is a tremendous sense of family in the sakai. facilities, as we can see, here all the management and staff take breaks together and clearly enjoy each other's company. Sakurai fry ponds are actually only used for a very short period of time throughout the year from the time the newly hatched fry first go outside and return inside for their second cull in this 60 day period. ;

However, it is actually the most crucial as it is during this period of time that the characteristics that ultimately define the koi develop naturally as soon as they have been brought into the pond. It is drained and a tractor is brought in to remove the bottom of the pond, this regenerates the natural food and bacteria present in the sludge, which contributes greatly to the conditions in which these fry are kept once the pond has been turned. pond, it is drained down and abandoned until such time as it is ready to receive its next inhabitants. Once the friars spent 60 days outside and endured two sacrifices, those who achieve the initial grade are brought inside for the remainder of the summer, This is the Sakai Tozai facility, a substantial greenhouse containing only what the staff calls

breeding

ponds, all filled with koi spawned earlier this year.

None of them are more than three months old, but you can already see the size of some of these fish. You will notice again that the population rate of these concrete ponds is maintained. at a reasonable level, in an attempt to help the koi grow, each containing between 1,500 and 2,000 coins, the water is of course heated, but the prevailing conditions of the area, especially in the height of summer, dictate a naturally high water temperature and ponds are less than a meter deep, this of course allows for maximum growth of the koi and many fish will double in size in a matter of weeks.

Shade can be added to the greenhouse if necessary and the fish are fed using automatic feeders four times a day. At the risk of repeating myself again, you can see that each pond is heavily aerated, ensuring a good level of oxygen at all times. The air temperature in this fish house is stifling and in conditions like this, it is no wonder such incredible growth rates are achieved. From the moment the egg fertilizes, a single fry has about a two percent chance of reaching this stage, so all of these koi have done extremely well in figuring out at this point exactly how they will develop from here. , although it is another story for another time. is pretty much the final part of the spawning and culling process and although some of these koi will be sold cheaply as tatistar in the autumn, many will continue on as tatikoy and become excellent nissai sanzai and beyond, although the sakai farm is located above An hour's drive from the city, no trip to the area would be complete without visiting Hiroshima Peace Park, a memorial to the thousands upon thousands of people who died and continued to die as a result of the atomic bomb that devastated the city. on August 6, 1945.

We visited the park just a week before the 60th anniversary of the attack and as such saw several wreaths being laid to commemorate the dead. The bomb exploded in the air a few meters before hitting the ground itself and at that moment the city of Hiroshima became a hell, only a handful of buildings were left standing, one of which was the main civic hall of the city. It was decided to leave it standing as an eternal legacy of that fateful day. Visiting the park is an incredibly emotional and moving experience and some of the photographs on display in the exhibition hall, especially those of Japanese children, are particularly haunting.

There are several memorial statues around the park, but the most moving of all is the eternal flame, something that has been burning. Since the park opened and will only become extinct when the world's last nuclear weapon is destroyed, including these images as part of a program about koikap

breeding

may seem frivolous and unnecessary, but such is the impact we feel the park has. park in those who visit it. Its inclusion is more than justified. It's a place that makes you happy to be alive. We visited Japan to finally see koi, but as you walk around this place you realize that there are much more important things in life.

We sincerely hope you enjoyed this visit. hiroshima and the sakai fish farm and that you have learned something about the way Japanese nishikigoi masters approach spawning and raising their living jewels. However, I must emphasize that this is definitely not a way to raise your own grand champion. If anything, this show opens my eyes to how difficult it is to breed nishikigoi at any level and how the conditions we face in the West are actually not conducive to breeding high-class koi. There are a number of factors that are against it. Most notable is the need to invest in suitable breeders, the need for a considerable area to carry out such a breeding program and, of course, the monetary investment required.

There are several fish farms outside of Japan that are now successfully raising their own populations. and these people should certainly be highly praised, but for truly high quality koi, from now on the only place to get them is the nishikigoi's own home. Such is the experience of these people, experience acquired throughout practically a lifetime of work dedicated to raising better nishikigoi, that we still retain the advantage over people like us, who only dream of achieving similar goals, although perhaps that is one of the reasons why the much-talked-about koi mystique remains so real and why we return to the Far East again and again.