Do we have a guide on how to cultivate eggs and setup hatchery?

[Shell-Fish]

Apologies if this has been asked a hundred times but recently seeing my pond fish doing some "hanky panky" in last few days, would like to see if what way best possible to start cultivating the eggs.

My thinking is to buy a spawning mop or brush and place in area where I see the fish doing their naughty adult stuff.
It's at this point I'm not sure what to do. Do I leave where it is and see what happens? I don't think there's any place in the pond for the fry to escape to and keep safe so looking at what's required to setup a hatchery tank.

Also, would it be possible to place the hatchery in a garage as well as little to no light?

Thanks.

Sir Noob-a-lot.

 

[mrsclem]

You need to move eggs to an area where they are protected. I am rying to save a few koi fry to put into stocktanks . Mosquito larve will kill your fry as will any tadpoles. I have mine inside now but you can set up something outside with netting.

 

[Tula]

You need to move eggs to an area where they are protected. I am rying to save a few koi fry to put into stocktanks . Mosquito larve will kill your fry as will any tadpoles. I have mine inside now but you can set up something outside with netting.

I didn't know mosquito larvae eat fry and tadpole.....always learning

 

[GBBUDD]

If you keep your fish well fed you will get babies i have at least 12 babies from last year and another dozen from earlier in the year. Fry you want some i'll give yeah all yeah want. If skeeters and tads eat fry i don't they can do so for very long " with koi " anyways they grow so fast.

 

[Jhn]

Can put a ton of plants in one end of your pond like this for a hatchery....Get plenty of fry from all the species of fish in my pond except the catfish. I made too many places for fry to hide, so I get a lot of Julie fish with no effort.

May need to rethink it since I have a net over the pond to keep the heron out. May need to start thinning the herd in the next year or two.

 

[Shell-Fish]

This is my raised pond setup and sadly didn't think much about adding plants as only one place I can.

This area here is where the hanky panky is going on as plants sit on a large shelf and is a bit of a squeeze to get it.
The rocks under the large boulder has small gaps for fry to have some protection but that's it.

Can anyone suggest if I can add something to provide some protection heer? water depth is minimum due to the shelf.

 

[Shell-Fish]

Sadly I lost a fish this morning and believe to be one of the 2 females in the pond setup. Possibly attacked during spawning frenzy, I don't know.
Other female is larger and can look after herself so going to see how things go.
I do have a spawning mop available and will place near open water as think the rocks in the pond may be brushing and hurting the fish when they all go for it.

 

[JamieB]

18th a small pond like that, you may want to discourage breeding behaviors. Otherwise you'll soon be overwhelmed with fish. Each spawn can result in hundreds of eggs, and you can expect them to have several spawns a year, and even at 25% survival rate, that's 25 -100 more fish!

 

[Shell-Fish]

18th a small pond like that, you may want to discourage breeding behaviors. Otherwise you'll soon be overwhelmed with fish. Each spawn can result in hundreds of eggs, and you can expect them to have several spawns a year, and even at 25% survival rate, that's 25 -100 more fish!

How does one go about stopping the hanky panky? Do i just remove the female and isolate and for how long?

Thanks.

 

[JamieB]

Single sex pond is the only guarantee, but other than that, you can set up the pond so fewer fry survive. No spawning mops, or removing the spawning mop the day after fish are done getting jiggy, and let it dry, scrape off the eggs, and re-use. If you want a few more fish, it's a good way to get free fish, and you'll enjoy watching them, but it can lead to a problem others find of overpopulated ponds.

 

[Shell-Fish]

Single sex pond is the only guarantee, but other than that, you can set up the pond so fewer fry survive. No spawning mops, or removing the spawning mop the day after fish are done getting jiggy, and let it dry, scrape off the eggs, and re-use. If you want a few more fish, it's a good way to get free fish, and you'll enjoy watching them, but it can lead to a problem others find of overpopulated ponds.

Thanks @JamieB this will be my first attempt on raising fry so I'll let nature take it's coarse and if overloaded, will pass on to local fish shop.
if it all goes belly up, I'll move out of home and change my name

 

[JamieB]

Nah, no need to move, this is a very forgiving hobby. If you start to get overwhelmed with babies, stop feeding the fish, make efforts to reduce hiding places for fry, and do the spawning mop trick.