250 Showa Koi Fry

ed2

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I'm really excited. I've spoken to somebody at a koi farm and I've just ordered a batch of 2-3 week old koi fry from Showa parents! They are being delivered in the middle of next week, and I intend to bring them on in my bedroom at university. Needless to say, my four other house mates looked at me like I was mad when I asked if they would have any objections to me putting a pond in my bedroom for 6 weeks, but they're pretty easy going!

I'm setting it all up on Monday/Tuesday (buying the pre-formed pond, a smaller pump and filter (which will have a carefully covered inlet), dechlorinator, bacteria to boost the new filter, etc etc tomorrow morning).

So, just a bit of last minute swotting up on koi raising and I'm good to give it a go, so fingers crossed! I'll put some photos on if you guys would like?


Regards,

Ed
 

j.w

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Hmmmmmmmmmm, now this should be interesting! Yes we must see photos and can't imagine how this will work. I remember awhile back about you talking about doing this but can't remember how you are making a support for the pond or do they even need a support system. How long do you have left in school? Might want to put a net over your pond cuz sometimes the koi are jumpers and I don't think your room mates want to step out of bed at night to a flopping fish on the floor!
 

koiguy1969

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you can buy a 250 - 300 galon snapset pool for under $15.00 ...i use them they are made of pvc and fish safe. are they coming after hes culled or before he picked out the decernt ones?...interested to see how many are actually gonna be showas... sankes ..ogons etc... good luck with the project either way.
 

ed2

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Hi and thanks for the replies... Just to clarify that in England at university it's extremely rare that we share actual rooms in our accommodation. My room is a medium sized room in a 5 bedroom house that we have rented privately! I have 6 weeks left at the house. What should be interesting is that the landlady gave me permission for a fish tank earlier in the year that I put in the kitchen... It will be interesting to argue that this setup is still technically a tank of sorts! Lol

The fry are coming before they have been selected/culled - so in aware that the chances are I may only get a few nicely marked ones, but I'm not really too worried about this since the fry are only costing me £27.50 from 250 so the way I see it is that if I have say 10 I can sell for a few pounds at a later date it's been a very cheap project. Any that don't make the grade due to uninteresting colours I'm not too concerned about as I have neighbours and friends who would like to fill ponds and won't even know there are different breeds of koi! (not that I can identify different ones but this is why I want to raise some to help me learn).

I also work for the ambulance service and have responded to some emergencies at an elderly peoples' care home, who have just installed a pond in their gardens for the residents, so I'm hoping to be able to donate some of the fish (rather than cull them purely on their markings or if they are deemed plain). As I say, the ultimate goal is to have a couple of colourful fish remaining for my pond and to learn along the way :)
 

j.w

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Sounds like you have a good plan ed and hope the little guys/gals turn out to be really nice fish and so nice of you to donate some fish to the elderly home!
 

ed2

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Well, I've been having an expensive day buying equipment.... Dechlorinator, a new 3000lph pump, new hosetails for my filter, a new 480lph air pump, a bucket, a 1000 litre paddling pool, some containers to breed brine shrimp, a net cover, a thermometer, fry crumb, brine shrimp cysts, and that's just about all today.... One very expensive day! And got the bill for the fry and delivery too lol

Now, got to get it all set up and we will see what happens! :)
 

j.w

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So you went w/ the pool instead of the preform it sound like? You must show us photo's of the set up when you get it up and running or even before that so we can see how you are doing it.
 

ed2

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Yes I did... I had overlooked the idea of an inflatable pool, purely because the idea just didn't come to mind!

However, there were a few distinct advantage for the inflatable paddling pool:

1. I was restricted to how big a preformed pond I could buy because it had to first fit into my car (just bought myself a nice vauxhall astra sport - I don't want to get it dirty! Lol) because obviously it would have to fit into the boot. I didn't have the option to tow because I haven't got a towing licence. I would also have to get it into my bedroom which meant I was restricted on size to make it actually pass through my bedroom door. This meant a max volume of around 450 litres could be achieved

2. Any preformed liner I was going to buy would be very expensive unless bought second hand. If bought second hand it was going to be very dirty, having undoubtedly been sunk into the ground for a while so I wouldn't particularly want it in my bedroom. The other thing that concerned me is that any used liner would be dirty inside and I don't want this extra potential complication (bacteria, parasites, etc!)

3. It could well have a leak and I've been caught out buying second hand before

4. I am coming home from university in 6 weeks time and will need to clear my room out, and I have a lot of stuff anyway. A preformed would guarantee an extra journey to take my things home, as it would take up my whole boot space. Each journey between my two houses takes 4 hours (both ways) at a cost of £25 in fuel.

I figured, with all this considered, the extra £10 outlay was easily justifiable so hence I now have a 3x2m pool to fit in lol
 

j.w

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Now do you have a camera ed? Cuz we must see this set up and the look on your roomies faces afterwards,lol! Hope they are good guys and don't decide to go for a float in there w/ a little drink or two! How soon before you get it all up and running? So when you get done w/ school then will you transport the fish to the other home to a pond or still keep in the pool?
 

ed2

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I don't know really whether I'll be moving them into my pond or not, it will really depend on their size. I might choose the ones I think I'll want to keep and put them into the pond to grow on when it warms up and keep the others outside by the pond in the paddling pool.

The pool is set up..... And was a touch bigger than I'd anticipated... So now here's my room..... LOL! More pictures in the next few days!
473457_10150831484035490_618765489_12149102_1426779820_o.jpg

This is going to be interesting... LOL
 

j.w

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LOL interesting to say the least! You don't have much room to move around it but then it all comes down to what's most important and to you right now the fish are definitely a priority as it's plain to see! Good thing it's not right next to your bed or is that your bed w/ the yellow thing laying on it? If it is be careful in the dark if you have the need to get up or you may become one w/ the fishes,lol!
 

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In a typical North American university those fry would be fed a diet of pizza and beer, and any that survived would be swallowed whole by one inebriated buddy or another. :cheerful:
John
 

ed2

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Lol! I'm glad that this is being taken in good spirits! Indeed the yellow item is my running jacket that is on the end of my bed! Lol! My room is absolutely roasting hot with the radiator on flat out and a portable oil filled heater turned right up to... It's difficult keeping the water above 20degrees!!

I'm off to bed now, I feel like a little kid on Christmas eve knowing that when I wake up I'll have my gifts arriving ;D
 

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