Baby Koi

[CliffandJoann]

Koiguy, no, we don't seperate them. We get hundreds and hundreds of them, and have
raise them on 4 tanks. We have 4 tanks between 30 and 60 gallons.
Truthfully, we stopped raising them cause we are already overloaded with koi.
We give most of the fry away.

koikeeper, here are two of the tanks, there are two more bigger ones on the ground.
we keep aquarium filters, airstones and plants in each tank.

This is our butterfly Silver and her baby.

 

[koikeepr]

gotcha! glass tanks! Sweet! I think I'm gonna do the same thing with my watonai goldfish this spring!

What kinda filters are you using in them?

 

[koiguy1969]

i give mine away too........craigslist

 

[CliffandJoann]

Regular aquarium filters, we pick them up cheap at yard sales --
both the tanks and the filters.

 

[koikeepr]

how do you keep the fry from getting sucked up?

 

[nc0gnet0]

I am guessing sponge filters like used in breeder tanks......

 

[koikeepr]

that's what I was thinking....but they are saying regular aquarium filters. Maybe they throw a sponge on the tip?

 

[koiguy1969]

i put a nylon over my prefilter...and only use a 425 gph pump and with as large of a prefilter as i use,the draw is spread out over a large area. you can actually watch them swim right by the prefilter you could do the same with statuary pump.like 70 gph or so in a tank or aquarium..and just pump the water thru carbon and zeolite. it would last along time in a fry pond.

 

[koikeepr]

got it, so with a smaller pump they won't get sucked to the intake pipe on a standard filter. And the nylon helps, too.

Gotta get ready for my spring watonai breeding! Have to grab myself some used tanks on craigslist!

 

[koiguy1969]

TSC, tractor supply company has stocktanks 60 gal @ $30.00 110 gals @ $60.00...they make nice nurseries....and you may want to get a couple brine shrimp hatcheries, to feed them, especially for quicker groth if your looking to sell. the brand name is 'tuff stuff' if i recall correctly.

 

[koikeepr]

I've never looked at their site--AND it turns out they have a few of their stores a few miles from me!! I see the stock tanks! Great idea koiguy! They've even got free shipping on stuff over 50 bucks and a $5 off coupon going.

Sweet! Thanks for the tip!

 

[koiguy1969]

they make fry pond / tank filters that run on air pumps that have foam filters to start off with when your fry are really tiny. oh and the stock tanks are tuffstuff not the brine shrimp hatcheries.

 

[koiguy1969]

http://www.tractorsupply.com/livest...ssories/stock-tanks/stock-tank-110-ga-2229862
theres the 110 gallon one
heres the 40 gallon..they stopped making the 60
http://www.tractorsupply.com/livest...es/stock-tanks/oval-stock-tank-40-gal-2229846

 

[CliffandJoann]

Hi kiokeeper, I see you got lots of responses to your question. We used what ever we had
available for filter material. As far as getting sucked into the filter, some do get sucked in to the filter...and we tossed them back in when we see them...Just like the bottom drain, the water around the bottom drain
swirles around rapidly like the water in a bathtub as it's emptying. Many babies, take the journey through the pipes and into the filter tubs. When we clean the filter we toss them back in the pond...
They soon learn to not get close to the bottom drain...

Cliff raised aquarium fish with his Dad when he was a kid. Guppies, clouds and angel fish.
They sold them to pet stores. He's a great believer in aggressive water changes both in ponds and aquariums. It makes the fish grow healthy and keeps the water fresh and clear.
Our pond is amazingly clear all the time. We don't use uv lights or chemicals. He believes the uv lights kill all the good bacteria. I'll be back with some aquarium photos.

 

[CliffandJoann]

The first year we had fry, we closed off our dog leg section of the pond.
Our dog leg is 13 foot long x 6 foot wide. The reason we added the dog leg
(in 1998) was to give the fish more swimming room...Koi love to swim, so the bigger the surface area for them to swim the better.
Well, when they first spawned we tossed the egg laded plants int the dog leg, and closed off the dog leg entrance with rocks so the big fish couldn't get in...It was a good idea as
the fry were safe, however, I no longer could enjoy watching them take the big swim all around the pond and into the dog leg and out again...so the next year we came up up raising them in multiple aquariums (4) outside...

This is the fry in the dog leg

Then we begain raisin fry in aquariums...when fall approached I wqnted to bring some in,
so we picked up a 13 gal show tank, set it up in the breakfast room and brought in about nine baby koi. It so fun watching the babies grow all winter. Again we did aggressive water changes. The aquarium was always crystal clear.