check your PM.
I just have 3 left out of 30 biggies. I'm still holding ~17 for buyers until weather warms.
I just have 3 left out of 30 biggies. I'm still holding ~17 for buyers until weather warms.
Fry progress report
- Thread starter jameskoi
- Start date
Pictures I took yesterday.
Rigged submersible in such a way that no more fry can be killed accidentally. So far so good.
Fry doing really well. They're eating powered food now. I'm using some type of fry food I bought that says 50% protein. Probably wasted $12 but was too lazy to crush my own - that's a mistake... Was compulsive buying. I think most of the food is too fine. They're getting pretty big now. Looking more like fish now. So far ate almost 100g of brine shrimp eggs. I'll just hatch most of the last bottle of 50g shrimp eggs since they appear to love it so much. Should be all used up by Tues/Wed.
There are a few runts in there and did not grow at all. Oh well... Nice knowing them when tobies eat them.
No matter how careful I am, I end up killing some by accident one way or another. Just way too many swimming around without care or caution. Most senseless death was while testing ammonia. Didn't realize I scooped up fry in test tube until I looked at the colour chart. Poor guy died pretty fast. :fish:
Another one ended up mysteriously dried up on outside of tank glass. No idea how it got there but it must have been my fault.
Rigged submersible in such a way that no more fry can be killed accidentally. So far so good.
Fry doing really well. They're eating powered food now. I'm using some type of fry food I bought that says 50% protein. Probably wasted $12 but was too lazy to crush my own - that's a mistake... Was compulsive buying. I think most of the food is too fine. They're getting pretty big now. Looking more like fish now. So far ate almost 100g of brine shrimp eggs. I'll just hatch most of the last bottle of 50g shrimp eggs since they appear to love it so much. Should be all used up by Tues/Wed.
There are a few runts in there and did not grow at all. Oh well... Nice knowing them when tobies eat them.
No matter how careful I am, I end up killing some by accident one way or another. Just way too many swimming around without care or caution. Most senseless death was while testing ammonia. Didn't realize I scooped up fry in test tube until I looked at the colour chart. Poor guy died pretty fast. :fish:
Another one ended up mysteriously dried up on outside of tank glass. No idea how it got there but it must have been my fault.
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j.w
I Love my Goldies
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That is one heck of a lot of fish frye :fish:
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
They are looking good James. Going into Koi farming? LOL I'm considering it, This is really good stuff, I've read your pond build filter build and now raising the fry. I want to thank you for the continual updates, This is a great learning experience as you go along. You know if you are able to get a good # of good colors those babies could pay for your whole adventure and leave a nice pool table to boot. Not a whole lot of people get as far along as you and your in a perfect position to raise a lot of nice little kpi out of all those.
Thanks! Nope... no koi farming. hehe... Yup, it is so far an amazing journey. I was just a few months away from shutting down my basement pond and koi keeping completely until a future date but look what happened now. At least another year to go if it goes according to plan. I think the hard part is over. I know how to raise fry, which is pretty easy. Culling will be a challenge on top of making sure none of these babies get sick down the road. If none go kaput while the culling stage and if I'm left with $50-100 nice koi, that will be great. I can actually turn a profit or at least break even. At least I didn't sell my microscope. I almost did but this instrument will last a life time. I'll keep it indefinitely with koi or no koi.
As for culling. Not sure yet. Will see at 1" and if I can't determine quality by then besides getting rid of whites, solids and deform ones, I may not have much to cull and just keep growing them until I know what to look for. Thus, when I end up with 50-100 nice 5" koi at the end, I will be a very happy camper. I should have enough noob knowledge to tell 5" koi, but 1-2" even 3", I have no idea. That, I will have to see, so I reckon the safest way to not cull nice ones by accident is let them grow more. 1500G pond should provide me with enough resources to grow them bigger and safely. I have to start looking at culling tutorials too. Those are not that easy to find on the net either, at least for me.
Here's fry video and has 720p HD option: I think it's day 7 as with pictures above. It's day 9 now and gotten bigger.
[ame]
As for culling. Not sure yet. Will see at 1" and if I can't determine quality by then besides getting rid of whites, solids and deform ones, I may not have much to cull and just keep growing them until I know what to look for. Thus, when I end up with 50-100 nice 5" koi at the end, I will be a very happy camper. I should have enough noob knowledge to tell 5" koi, but 1-2" even 3", I have no idea. That, I will have to see, so I reckon the safest way to not cull nice ones by accident is let them grow more. 1500G pond should provide me with enough resources to grow them bigger and safely. I have to start looking at culling tutorials too. Those are not that easy to find on the net either, at least for me.
Here's fry video and has 720p HD option: I think it's day 7 as with pictures above. It's day 9 now and gotten bigger.
[ame]
j.w
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Can't you just advertise the solid colored ones for free or really cheap on a post at the grocery store or somewhere cuz I bet lots of people would love to have them who are just wanting some nice fish for their pond 
Good question and solutions. I never got around to explain my method of 'culling'.
Since I'm guessing I will have hundreds and hundreds to give away, I don't want to be preoccupied with dozens and dozens of visitors. That's going to take too much time if each takes home just a few or even dozens. I can give to pet store and most will likely turn them into feeders. Oh well... Either way, I already have one person interested in all my fry I don't want. Will take them all. Didn't ask why and don't want to know.
Since I'm guessing I will have hundreds and hundreds to give away, I don't want to be preoccupied with dozens and dozens of visitors. That's going to take too much time if each takes home just a few or even dozens. I can give to pet store and most will likely turn them into feeders. Oh well... Either way, I already have one person interested in all my fry I don't want. Will take them all. Didn't ask why and don't want to know.
sissy
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:lol:they keep growing like that look out world fish are going to take over and your to blame jameskoi:fish::fish::fish::fish:
:fish::fish::fish:This year I am taking all of my very dark baby koi and putting them in with the ones I am selling normally. Anyone that buys any Koi gets to buy as many of the dark ones they want for just a buck a piece. I should have culled the completely dark ones early on.
I hate killing even the deformed ones. I have done gill surgery on a couple of nicer looking ones for practice. Some times their gill plates will flare out from early growth. "Proud gill" as it is called. So I sedate and trim them to see if they will grow back straight. Still in the experimental stage but doesn't look too bad so far.
I hate killing even the deformed ones. I have done gill surgery on a couple of nicer looking ones for practice. Some times their gill plates will flare out from early growth. "Proud gill" as it is called. So I sedate and trim them to see if they will grow back straight. Still in the experimental stage but doesn't look too bad so far.
Thx for the info.
Me too. I hate doing 'the deed'. I've done that already by accident so many times. The submersible is a murderer too. I rigged it now so it won't kill but still was a 99% reduction. I have so many swimming around still and there is no way to avoid accidental deaths.
Very interesting with the surgery. You're a fish doctor! The most I'd done was injection.
Fry doing great. Most are probably 7mm now.
Me too. I hate doing 'the deed'. I've done that already by accident so many times. The submersible is a murderer too. I rigged it now so it won't kill but still was a 99% reduction. I have so many swimming around still and there is no way to avoid accidental deaths.
Very interesting with the surgery. You're a fish doctor! The most I'd done was injection.
Fry doing great. Most are probably 7mm now.
they sure are pretty...I have maybe 20-30 to give away this year, a local pond store said they would take them in trade and grow them out. I have problems even culling the goldfish babies, DH is a bit more cold hearted, but does it when I'm not looking. All our baby koi are so cute I'd like to keep most but know I can't...going to be hard to just pick a couple....yep I'm ready to get rid of my large brownish koi, they are hard to see, and I have to many whites so they are easy for me to let go.
Two weeks in and switching to dry food 80% of the time. Using some sort of baby fry food I bought from the pet store. It's too fine. Turns the water into chocolate milk (slight exaggeration). Going to crush koi pellets today.
But discovered a new problem. Maybe due to uneaten food. But water parameters are perfect. Fry dying in slightly larger numbers than the usual few floaters. I scoped a few that just died or dying and found costia. I'm 99% sure. At 100-400x they're a bunch of little flat potato shaped objects tumbling, doing body rolls and darting around. I'm added 0.2% salt. I doubt it will work. I changed 70% water last night. About a dozen floaters today but the tobies are having them for breakfast. I'm thinking about proform-c and change out water to get rid of salt if it gets worse but won't try since I can't seem to find any info about the effects on 2 week old fry. Help please! They don't look like commas to me but looks exactly like this and almost the same in numbers:
[ame]
But discovered a new problem. Maybe due to uneaten food. But water parameters are perfect. Fry dying in slightly larger numbers than the usual few floaters. I scoped a few that just died or dying and found costia. I'm 99% sure. At 100-400x they're a bunch of little flat potato shaped objects tumbling, doing body rolls and darting around. I'm added 0.2% salt. I doubt it will work. I changed 70% water last night. About a dozen floaters today but the tobies are having them for breakfast. I'm thinking about proform-c and change out water to get rid of salt if it gets worse but won't try since I can't seem to find any info about the effects on 2 week old fry. Help please! They don't look like commas to me but looks exactly like this and almost the same in numbers:
[ame]
Yeah, I hope so too... Still have thousands. Population still looks unchanged compared to day 2 or 3 but I know numbers have dropped a lot but still looks like thousands to me. Most of population hit 1cm and some are developing black. I don't expect to see red colour until 1" and according to the net, it is time to start culling for kohakus. Being that father is kajuku, not entirely sure what the mix will be. If resources permit, I'll let them grow more to make sure. If only the weather is warmer now, the buyers will take all the biggies in my 1500G to their new homes. Probably won't happen in another month. So monopolize my main pond yet and I'm sure that'll cut down parasites. I might be stuck with 2 biggies, but that won't matter any more. Planning to build big mesh baskets.
I guess losing a hundred a day is not so bad for only a short time. Less culling but maybe those smaller ones are quality fry. Looks like mainly the little ones are getting hit with this problem. 90% of them are big. The 60G tank that is holding about 500 are doing great and have no floaters to my knowledge.
Now that they're bigger, it is with 100% certainty that some are scratching at the bottom of the tank. Before, I just thought they were darting around for fun.
Now, I'm feeding them mixture of crushed koi food, plankton and flakes. I'm going to discontinue that specialized fry food. Too fine.
I hope an expert chimes in on how to treat fry with costia. Don't want to make situation worse by medication. I'll stick with water changes and salt for now.
I guess losing a hundred a day is not so bad for only a short time. Less culling but maybe those smaller ones are quality fry. Looks like mainly the little ones are getting hit with this problem. 90% of them are big. The 60G tank that is holding about 500 are doing great and have no floaters to my knowledge.
Now that they're bigger, it is with 100% certainty that some are scratching at the bottom of the tank. Before, I just thought they were darting around for fun.
Now, I'm feeding them mixture of crushed koi food, plankton and flakes. I'm going to discontinue that specialized fry food. Too fine.
I hope an expert chimes in on how to treat fry with costia. Don't want to make situation worse by medication. I'll stick with water changes and salt for now.
Update again:
I just scoped a 1/2 dead fry. Definitely costia, I see the comma shape now at 400x. Looks like population increased even more compared to last night. 70% water change last night and 0.2% salt didn't do anything.
Going to change 80-90% water to get rid of the salt (i did 70% last nite and added salt) and dump proform-c at regular dosage. I think the time has come that meds will outweigh the negatives. Dozens of floaters and 1/2 dead that I can see and certainly looks like it's getting worse.
I'll watch carefully in the next bit to spot for trouble.
First major road block. Let's hope these fry come out strong and still in huge numbers.
Last thing I read from another forum, when they start dying, it doesn't stop unless action is taken. Looks like it's happening with them now. Someone dosed proform-c at 2-3 weeks and appear to be okay... let's hope it's okay with these guys.
I just scoped a 1/2 dead fry. Definitely costia, I see the comma shape now at 400x. Looks like population increased even more compared to last night. 70% water change last night and 0.2% salt didn't do anything.
Going to change 80-90% water to get rid of the salt (i did 70% last nite and added salt) and dump proform-c at regular dosage. I think the time has come that meds will outweigh the negatives. Dozens of floaters and 1/2 dead that I can see and certainly looks like it's getting worse.
I'll watch carefully in the next bit to spot for trouble.
First major road block. Let's hope these fry come out strong and still in huge numbers.
Last thing I read from another forum, when they start dying, it doesn't stop unless action is taken. Looks like it's happening with them now. Someone dosed proform-c at 2-3 weeks and appear to be okay... let's hope it's okay with these guys.