The Great Koi Round up of 2019 is Underway !

[Lisak1]

What was the reason for catching all your fish? Maybe I missed something. Was it to clean out your pond?

Every year @Tula is HUGELY successful at breeding koi. She gets dozens of fry every year - way too many for her pond. So she rounds up the babies and finds them new homes!

 

[Tula]

What was the reason for catching all your fish? Maybe I missed something. Was it to clean out your pond?

My pond is only 1700 gallons and I have 4 adult koi, 3 of them are over 15 years old. I simply do not have enough space and filtration to support more koi in the pond. As it is, the koi surprise me by their continued growth, which means additional filtration

 

[poconojoe]

Every year @Tula is HUGELY successful at breeding koi. She gets dozens of fry every year - way too many for her pond. So she rounds up the babies and finds them new homes!

Oh, OK, that makes sense!

 

[poconojoe]

My pond is only 1700 gallons and I have 4 adult koi, 3 of them are over 15 years old. I simply do not have enough space and filtration to support more koi in the pond. As it is, the koi surprise me by their continued growth, which means additional filtration

Got it! They keep multiplying! Too many fish... that's a bummer! It puts a strain on everything.
Oh my! you have to remove some every year! Those critters are busy!
Mine multiply too, but it seems at a slower rate than yours.
Most of my offspring are goldfish, but there are some that appear to be hybrids. They look like koi, but don't have barbels and are either black or black with brown bellies.
Happy fishing!

 

[Tula]

@poconojoe If you have both koi and gold fish, they create hybrid off spring. These are generally a dark olive color and they are thought to be sterile.

My friend and her husband took all this years' babies - whew ! I wish I could enjoy the pond without the babies for longer....but soon the weather will turn cold and in the Spring they get frisky again !

 

[addy1]

Got it! They keep multiplying! Too many fish... that's a bummer! It puts a strain on everything

One reason I don't feed mine during spawning season, which can go on most of the summer. I have managed to keep my population reasonable. No way to count them, but the herd is not over whelming the pond.

 

[addy1]

but soon the weather will turn cold and in the Spring they get frisky again !

They need to develop food with fishy birth control built into it.

 

[Tula]

One reason I don't feed mine during spawning season, which can go on most of the summer. I have managed to keep my population reasonable. No way to count them, but the herd is not over whelming the pond.

I don't feed mine when I see signs of spawning either. I have two females and they each spawn once per season, usually within 24 hours of each other. I let them gorge on eggs and I try to scrape eggs off the side of the pod - ugh. Cha Cha's belly was full of eggs this year!

 

[Lisak1]

Goodness... you have the fertility goddesses living in your pond! Have you ever considered adding a couple of goldfish? I think the goldfish were the reason we never had koi successfully breed in our pond. They spawned several times a season but never saw a single fry.

 

[GBBUDD]

I have found two easy ways to catch the fry before they come of age and size.
1. catch them at night with a bright flash light if you shine it on them they can't see the net coming so long as your gentle about it.
2. I take a 5 gal water jug and cut the top off just below where it narrows and then i turn it around stick it into the other end of the water jug and secure it by drilling a couple holes and tying the two together with zip ties. Throw a couple small rocks in the jug so i will sink and add some food in it and let it sit. check it in a hour or two and you will most likely have caught some babies. Oh and place it where you see the babies hanging out
3 limit the amount of food you feed your fish or don't feed them at all .

 

[addy1]

Or remove the net and mr heron will help out. But they usually take the prettiest fish.....................

 

[Tula]

Goodness... you have the fertility goddesses living in your pond! Have you ever considered adding a couple of goldfish? I think the goldfish were the reason we never had koi successfully breed in our pond. They spawned several times a season but never saw a single fry.

I used to have comets and shubukins in the pond with the koi. Man oh man did we have babies! The koi spawned with the goldfish and we had lots of hybrids. Some years back I hired a buy to install a new skimmer and remove the gravel, he ran a fish rescue and took all the babies.

I honestly have no idea why so many fry survive other then we have plenty of nooks and crannies for them to hide in. The pond also has what I refer to as "the cove" where there is little water movement and an abundance of water celery, grasses and lilies. The cove is also where there is a lot of fishy love going on !

 

[Tula]

I have found two easy ways to catch the fry before they come of age and size.
1. catch them at night with a bright flash light if you shine it on them they can't see the net coming so long as your gentle about it.
2. I take a 5 gal water jug and cut the top off just below where it narrows and then i turn it around stick it into the other end of the water jug and secure it by drilling a couple holes and tying the two together with zip ties. Throw a couple small rocks in the jug so i will sink and add some food in it and let it sit. check it in a hour or two and you will most likely have caught some babies. Oh and place it where you see the babies hanging out
3 limit the amount of food you feed your fish or don't feed them at all .

I might have to give the trap idea a try next year? I'm OCD about getting all the babies out, so I'll still lower the water and catch any that I don't trap, but it would be a step in the right direction