I was starting to worry

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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.
 
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I don't know for sure but I have been told it is usually a perfect balance of conditions that makes them do it. Perhaps a balance was off on something rather or maybe a predator was changing the mood :.P
 
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I've been fortunate that there have been no apparent predators around this year. I haven't even seen the hawks. The one thing that has changed dramatically this year is the abundance of plants growing in and around the pond - but I would have thought that would make them feel more comfortable, with so many tall irises and grasses offering them shade and protection. Also last year I was still working on the pond, putting in new rocks and plants every day, yet that didn't disturb them in the least. I dunno, nothing to do but keep watching...
 

fishin4cars

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Any sign of the dojo's? I have been curious if they made it through the winter. I've got more babies this year than in three years combined. Not as good of quality as in the past but more. I noticed today that Shamu and lucky were playing chase. Very well could spawn during the night. I got in the pond today and it felt very warm. got the themometer out and 88 degrees! Guess that's not to bad considering we hit 100 for the first time this year.
 
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Yep, we spotted two out of three of the dojos back in April... there's no way of knowing if all three survived because I almost never see more than one at a time, but the two we saw together were in good health and had doubled in size since they were put in last year. As a result, I added four more in May, and a couple weeks ago I added another 100 pounds of white sand to the bottom of my big pond. That should give them lots of room to bury, and maybe once they're comfortable we will start seeing more of them.
 

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