13 replies to this topic

[ZmanArt007]

Hi.

I finally found a market for spelling baby koi fish, and I need to get ahead of the game and begin breeding. Is it possible to stimulate breeding off-season in an indoor tank? How do I do that? The tank is about 500 gallons and I plan on keeping two or three fish in it to breed. Help would be appreciated!

[DrDave]

Make sure you have a female and at least 2 males. When she is full of eggs and about to burst, early spring, add floating plants and do a water change about May 1st. Water temp about 70 degrees. have a place for the eggs and brine shrimp eggs and hatcheries ready.

[ZmanArt007]

A question, will a fish be able to breed indoors if it has lived indoors all its life and never experienced the seasons? Will it still need to breed in spring or could it breed whenever it is ready to?

[DrDave]

Never had it happen, but then large mature Koi are too big to be in an indoor tank. Maybe a pond like Koiguy has built in his basement would work.

[ZmanArt007]

How big is big? My tank is about 600 gallons.

[DrDave]

That is pretty big. Well if you have adult koi and a female with eggs, around May 1st make sure you have some floating plants like hyacinth or water lettuce in the pond. If they don't spawn by June 1st, do a 25% water change and that may get things going. You will want your water temperature about 70 degrees F.

Mine have always spawned in that time period.

Have some methylene blue available for the tank you are going to move the eggs to and use half the recommended dose. This will help prevent fungus on the eggs and will increase the number that hatch.

Lots of aeration in the egg tank and screens over the filter inlets since the fry are verrrry small.

[ZmanArt007]

Thank you for the help, I still just have one question. These fish have never been outside in there life, besides when they were fry possibly before I bought them. Do they have any idea when May 1st is at all? will they still breed if they know not what seasons are?

[anubias]

I find a little wine goes a long way but seriously.

Try to simulate the conditions leading up to May 1. Equal parts of daylight and dark, warming waters so you'll need to chill your fish and feed them well and gradually bring up the water temps.

[DrDave]

Nature has a way of guiding them.

[RSFish1]

Also think of it this way. If you have ever had a regular fish tank, the fish in there will breed. Not much sunlight or temperature fluctuations. I used to drop the temperature on the tanks now and then to spur them on. A "Cold Shower" always seems to work for getting the fish IN the mood. LOL

[ZmanArt007]

Thanks for your help everyone! I guess I'll experiment with it and see how it works out.

[pondbuilder13]

So after they hatch where do you get brine shrimp from?

[RSFish1]

Many pet stores have the eggs that you can buy to hatch. Look in the DYI section or Google brine shrimp hatcheries. They are very easy to raise. But they have to be used shortly after hatching because that is when they are highest in protein with their egg sacks. You really need to build 2 hatcheries to keep rotating from day to day. Since the hatcheries can be made from 2 liter bottles, it is very inexpensive to make 2.
I believe you can buy the frozen already hatched ones for convenience. I buy my eggs in larger quantities off of eBay.

[DrDave]

I buy in 1 lb packages from www.brineshrimpdirect.com
It is about 1/10 the cost of fish stores.