Some of my comets showed signs of beginning to spawn about a month ago, for one day. Since then, absolutely nothing from anybody. Last year my fish were madly spawning at the beginning of May, while I was still trying to finish up the new pond, and we've had warmer weather this year. I was starting to wonder what was going on with my fish, but when I woke up this morning, I saw the familiar splashing in the river and knew they were busy.
I'm exciting about the spawning the year, because the plants have grown in over the edges providing plenty of areas for the fish to spray their eggs. Also I was extremely surprised to see many of the new koi I just got last year already participating in the spawning frenzy (I thought koi had to be a couple years old before they started). Even more exciting, when I got outside to take a look, my two platinums (female is a regular koi and male is a butterfly) were going at it far downstream... Those two are very nice looking fish (the male is my favorite of the pond) so I'm interested to see what kind of babies they produce. I also have a copper-colored koi (pinecone black on top, with a dark orange/black across the sides) who is also a male, and was working the platinum female later on. There are still a few more that I need to sex, but so far I have 2 confirmed females and 4 confirmed males out of 9 koi. I'm really hoping more of the new ones turn out to be female.
So what sets them off to spawning, and why might everyone be running so late this year? Is it just the water temps? Despite all the sun we've been getting, my water has been holding steady in the upper-60's for the last couple months. I haven't checked recently, but I'm sure the last several days of near-100's has pushed the water into the 70's. Other than the temperature, I don't know what else might have held them back.
I'm exciting about the spawning the year, because the plants have grown in over the edges providing plenty of areas for the fish to spray their eggs. Also I was extremely surprised to see many of the new koi I just got last year already participating in the spawning frenzy (I thought koi had to be a couple years old before they started). Even more exciting, when I got outside to take a look, my two platinums (female is a regular koi and male is a butterfly) were going at it far downstream... Those two are very nice looking fish (the male is my favorite of the pond) so I'm interested to see what kind of babies they produce. I also have a copper-colored koi (pinecone black on top, with a dark orange/black across the sides) who is also a male, and was working the platinum female later on. There are still a few more that I need to sex, but so far I have 2 confirmed females and 4 confirmed males out of 9 koi. I'm really hoping more of the new ones turn out to be female.
So what sets them off to spawning, and why might everyone be running so late this year? Is it just the water temps? Despite all the sun we've been getting, my water has been holding steady in the upper-60's for the last couple months. I haven't checked recently, but I'm sure the last several days of near-100's has pushed the water into the 70's. Other than the temperature, I don't know what else might have held them back.