HOME.....FISH.....FOOD.....NEWS.....ABOUT US.....BROODSTOCK.....FIND US
2010 KOI FRY
This page is to give you as much information as possible, regarding our spawning season and fry sales. Please email us if you require more information.
August 2010
Our fry season is now over, and has been one of our busiest seasons ever, both for numbers produced and sold. Demand has been spectacular this season, and we can only apologise if we could not supply the numbers or varieties that some required. This is the nature of dealing with livestock, and nothing ever goes quite to plan. We now look forward to our harvest, and we hope to show you some pictures of our efforts this season. We perhaps do not have the range of varieties we would have liked, but the quality of what we do have should be spectacular.
May 26th 2010
Many apologies for the lack of updates, it is a very busy time of year for us. 2-3 week old batches have started to flow from the site a little better, and we hope to fulfill all those orders on the waiting list soon. Demand for the 6-8 week old fry has been huge, and the first batches of these fish should hopefully be ready within 3 weeks, dependant upon the weather. Please be aware it will take us well into July to cope with this demand. Varieties now spawned include Shiro, Ogon, Kohaku, Goshiki, Kujaku, Chagoi, Sanke, Showa, and various ornamental fish. Brood ponds and hatchery are now being prepared for the next spawnings, which are likely to be Shusui and Sanke.
April 27th 2010
|
Following some more successful spawnings, including more shiro and some showa, today saw us selecting further broodstock for Kujaku spawnings. Whilst no fry are available for sale at the moment, some batches of 2-3 week old fish will hopefully be available soon. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
April 1st 2010
Our Shiro spawning has been a success, and we have now graded 5000 fry that are growing nicely in the hatchery. Following this parent set, we have a pair of Showa currently being conditioned as our next parent set. This is another variety where only the black fry will be kept, meaning we have to cull out around 60% of the fry when they are only a few days old. This prevents the plain fry becoming dominant and eating the precious black ones!
March 3rd 2010
These Omosako Shiro Utsuri are the first fish that we will attempt to spawn this season. They are currently being conditioned with a view to spawning them in a week or so. |
  |
SPAWNING KOI
|
When we have decided which parent sets to breed, they are brought into the breeding poly tunnel. Small tanks are prepared at the correct temperature, with spawning ropes to further encourage breeding activity. Usually, more than one parent set, and alternative males are brought in too, to give us alternatives should certain fish not want to play! |
 |
None of our parents are induced hormonally. We will spend the nights in the tunnel with the fish until they are ready to spawn naturally, usually around 4am! At this point, the female is removed and anaesthetized. As this is done at the point of ovulation, the eggs can be easily stripped from her, before quickly returning her to the pond to recover. The same is then done with the male fish, with the milt being stripped onto the eggs. This is done for the following reasons: FRY REARING INFORMATION
2-3 WEEK OLD FRY £25/250, £45/500, £75/1000
These fry are around 10mm long, and generally sold from one or two seperate varieties. It is difficult to supply as a mixed variety as we can only breed a couple of varieties at a time, and there is limited space in the hatchery. These fry are sold ungraded straight from the hatchery, so will generally be accustomed to very warm temperatures, around 25 degrees.
Looking after fry of this size can be more time consuming due to their feed requirements, and are recommended for experienced fish keepers only.
Hatching Artemia for your 2-3 week old fry
1) We can pair specific parents to acheive the desired cross, giving a more predictable outcome with regards to fry quality.
2) To prevent
potential cross infection from parent fish to egg/fry.
3) To acheive as near 100% fertilization as possible.
We can supply fry from 2 diiferent age groups, either 2-3 week old, or 6-8 week old.
It is important that fry are kept totally seperate from all other fish stocks. This is mainly due to two reasons:
1)Predation from larger fish
2)Infection risk from other fish
Koi fry have very low immune systems and we breed in a sterile environment. Your older stock may well carry pathogens to which the fry are not immune to, so even being on the same water system may wipe them out.
Ideal systems include small tank set ups such as quarantine systems. Glass tanks can be used for small quantities of fry, but remember the koi will quickly outgrow the tank, and you must have options in mind to split the fish out as they grow. Water should be filtered and of the highest standard. The point to bear in mind with filtering is making sure the fry cannot be sucked into the pump or down a bottom drain. The warmer you keep the fry, the better they will perform, with 25 degrees C an ideal average.
On the farm, 2-3 week olds are supplied to you direct from the hatchery, but 6-8 week old fish will be shipped from outdoor ponds. These are very shallow ponds, but with a large surface area to allow for fast warming in the summer. Always be careful to avoid large temperature shocks when introducing your fry.
Delivery £15 for up to 1000 fry.
Weaning onto dry food should commence around week 4, in conjunction with live food availability. Our fry feed packs include the diets we use on the farm. This includes the first feeding dry crumb, and a 1mm pellet for you to cut in as the fish get larger. Artemia cysts can also be supplied, along with hatching instructions.
For the first 4 weeks of their life, these fry are fed on live brine shrimp (artemia). For the best performance, we reccomend that you continue with this food when you receive the fish. We can supply the cysts for you to hatch if neccesary, though they are widely available in aquatic centres. Alternatives to hatching artemia are available, including decapsualted artemia (unhatched with shells chemically removed) or hard boiled egg yolk, which is best fed through a fine mesh net to create a cloud of particles. Such alternative feeding is at the customers own risk and is recommended only as a short term alternative or supplement. Experience has shown they can lead to the blocking of the intestinal tract.
Hatching Brine Shrimp (artemia) for your fry is relatively simple, and here we give you a few guidelines.
The best and cheapest vessel for small amounts of fry (up to 5000) is to use 2 litre pop bottles. Turned upside down with the bottom cut off, they make it easy to observe their hatch.
All that is required apart from this is aeration, from a small air pump and an airline weighted at the end. (we find it is better to use without an air stone), and some salted water. Most brine shrimp is ideally hatched in water between 25-35 parts per thousand. This means 25-35 grams per litre of water. In a two litre bottle therefore, filled to within 2 inches of the top, 50-60 grams of salt should be ideal.
Prepare the water and add the aeration. It is essential to keep the cysts well circulated. The cysts will hatch better and faster in warmer water, ideally 25-28 degrees. A small aquarium heater will help with this.
Use one teaspoon of cysts maximum per bottle. Setting up two bottles will allow you to feed twice a day.
Once hatched (12-24 hrs dependant upon temperature), remove the air and let the water settle for 5 minutes. The shells will float to the top, to be discarded, and the live artemia will begin to sink to the bottom.
The shrimp can then be harvested by syphon, or if the bottles are set up in the rearing tank, just unscrew the cap and let the shrimp into the tank! The risk here is not letting the salt level in the fish tank rise too much. The water from the bottle can be strained through a fine silklon type material to leave you with a pool of pure live artemia to feed.
The fry can be seen making darting movements as the pounce on the tiny artemia, and the shrimp will become visible in their digestive tract as yellow spots.
6-8 WEEK OLD FRY
£25/100, £50/250, £90/500, £150/1000
Delivery £15 for up to 1000 fry
|
By the time the fry are this age, (15-22mm) they are generally much easier to look after, and are suitable for fish keepers of all levels. They are beyond the live food stage, pre weaned onto artificial diets. The will however still appreciate some supplemental live feed such as daphnia! 6-8 week olds are generally sold as mixed variety, where we will try to include at least 4 different varieties within each batch. If you are interested in specific varieties, we may be able to send you fish from one specific parent set. In this situation, you must bear in mind that some varieties, such as Kohaku, produce only a small percentage of patterned fish. This leaves 90% of your fry as plain orange or plain white and require serious culling to ensure you are left with the few patterned fish. For general hobbyists, we reccommend that a mix is the more enjoyable way of rearing fry, watching different varieties develop. The time this development takes will depend upon the variety, with Ogon being the first to show their 'true colours' by the time they are 10 weeks old, and showa and kohaku taking many more years than that! |
 |
FRY FEED
 |
We are able to supply all feeds required to take your fish from fry through to adulthood. Our fry feed packs are tailor made to the fish you buy from us, and are shipped free of charge with your fish. Our standard 1 kg fry feed pack contains 500g of 0.5-0.8mm crumb, and 500g of 1mm pellet. This allows you to start the fish off on the crumb, and gradually cut in the pellet as the fish grow. For 2-3 week old fry, we can ship with some artemia cysts so you can start hatching live food. Chat with us when you order to ensure you get the best diets as recommended by our staff. Remember, we only supply you with the same feed that we use ourselves, so you can rest assured you are doing the best possible to maintain the health and growth of your fish!
|
HOME.....FISH.....FOOD.....NEWS.....ABOUT US.....BROODSTOCK.....FIND US
