Selecting And Culling Koi Fish

Why good Koi Fish are so expensive? The answers because the selection process to obtain good quality of koi is very long and complicated. From thousands of fry only a few are selected to be a good koi fish. Koi that have a standard specification of good koi very rare among thousand of tosai, selected Koi is the best. Breeding Koi starting with selecting good parent of koi, spawning process, and step by step selection and culling process by time and size of koi. The selection process will result koi with variety of quality. Koi with the best quality will be expensive and be winner in koi champion.

Culling Koi Fish

After Growing On in mud pond , tank or aqurium for about three weeks, koi fry start first culling process, remove any larger fry to another tank .The the basic recipe you can follow throughout all the culling procedures are Shape Culling, Color culling and Pattern Culling. Separate Koi fry with the jumbo growth with normal growth, because koi with rapid growth likely to win in food fight. Jumbo Fry become very aggressive especially if sufficient food is not provided. In this condition koi are small in size can not grow well.

Selecting Koi Fish

The first cull happens when the fish are 1 to 2 inches in length where the unmarketable fish are removed. Koi Fry with good color will be selected, then put into grow out ponds where they will continue to grow. Koi that do not pass the selection will be removed.

After an additional 45 days, the previously selected tosai are culled again. These fry are now 3 inches long. This culling is much easier – both because the patterns are much easier to see, and because there are so many fewer individuals to look through.

In an additional 70 days age to 3 months ,Koi Fish selected based on the pattern. Tategoi with the grade A pattern selected and kept again in the pond. This potential koi (tategoi) will keep up to jumbo size and ready to contest. To optimize the growth of Tategoi usually given koi food with Hi Growth type.

Reference :

1. Akca Library

Koi Fish Breeding

Koi Fish Breeding start with Select good Parent. Kois are selected as the parent if it really age. Female Koi must have egg in it's stomach for 6 until 9 month. The female is most important to the baby’s conformation. Female Must have jumbo size, approximately 75 cm in size. Male parent must have a good quality skin and color. The ratio of male and female is a 1 female and 2-3 male. The female koi deposits her eggs approximately 100,000 per kilogram of her body weight. As a general rule, Koi need to be three years old and at least 0.5kg to mature, although males can mature younger and smaller than this. When female Koi start to mature the eggs inside their body cavities and visibly start to swell and fill out around the abdomen.

Koi Spawning

Koi will try to spawn if the water in warm condition, in temperature 20 c. Naturaly Female lay egg in the submerged weed in koi pond. If there is no submerged weed in your pond, the addition of some artificial spawning rope at the right time will be sufficient to encourage Koi. It is usually best to add this substrate a week to 10 days before your Koi spawn. Preparing your pond to allow the fish to spawn is fairly straightforward. Koi prepare to spawn will notice males chasing a female, nudging her side with their mouths. The female will occasionally stop and suck at the sides of the pond in an attempt to clean an area on which she can deposit her eggs. This is the time to gently lower the spawning ropes into the pond. Spread out the coils of rope into a fanlike shape and anchor them to the side of the pond.

During this time it is best to leave the fish to it, although you can make sure they avoid too much damage by removing anything from the pond that they might bang into; including plant pots or any ornaments and light fittings. It is best to leave any water features such as fountains and waterfalls switched on, as the water currents they create will help the fish. To actually spawn, your female fish will run through the spawning substrate, attracting the attention of the males, who will then follow in close attendance.

After a short while, the female will release batches of eggs into the substrate and the males will release clouds of milt to fertilise them. The eggs must be fertilised within 20 seconds of them being laid, so the males must be very close by and ready once they are.When they have finished spawning, the females hang head down, respiring heavily, and the other fish will become less excited. Koi are not good parents and unless remove the eggs from the pond quickly before they will begin to eat them.

Feeding Koi should be suspended during the days that the fish are actively spawning, although in reality the fish normally stop feeding altogether as they start the major spawning periode.
Incubating Koi eggs

After Spawning process finished, remove the spawning ropes and carefully place them in a vat for incubation. Fertilized eggs will hatch within4- 5 days. Koi Fry will instinctively seek shelter and hide in any cover they can find. The spawning ropes are ideal for this. We Can give Hard-boiled egg yolk for koi fry food for the first day.This has very little dietary value, but will increase the size of the stomach. Newly hatched brine shrimp larvae are also a good food source for young Koi fry. Start feeding the brine shrimp when the Koi are about one week old. After another week or so, the Koi will be ready for a mash diet (the powder dust that is left after the manufacturing process of fish food).

During this first feeding stage, You will need to remove accumulated debris and waste frequently. Fresh water should add regularly to the vat to remove nitrates and ammonia. After three or four weeks, the fry will have grown to 5-10 mm in length and will be starting to take larger quantities of more generously sized foods. In this age usually kept in the pond mud, aquarium or tank.

Prepare A Quarantine Tank For Koi Fish

Ah, yes, the often dismissed but very necessary part of the Koi fish hobby, the infamous quarantine tank. Do you really need one to be successful in this hobby?

For freshwater fish as Koi  you may be able to get by without having one. Freshwater fish are generally more suited to captivity because they are usually tank raised and don't seem to break out in disease as readily as their saltwater counterparts. However, if newly acquired fish do come down with something, you will surely wish that you had one ready to go. One newly bought Koi  fish that is introduced to your main tank can easily wipe out the entire tank population. Better safe than sorry, right?


For saltwater aquarium keepers, I would say that you definitely need a quarantine tank. Marine specimens are mostly wild caught and not used to being kept in captivity. Their journey to a dealers tank is usually much longer and much more stressful for them. Stressed out fish will usually come down with some kind of disease if they don't simply die from the whole ordeal. Saltwater fish keepers will usually have other things in the main display tank such as invertebrates and live rock, that they don't want to expose to the harsh medicines necessary to treat one or two fish. Some medicines can wipe out all of the invertebrates in a tank, so be sure to research any medicine before using it in your tank.

Quarantine Tank Setup
You don't need to go all out here. A simple tank size of 10 - 20 gallons will suffice for most people. If you have larger fish then obviously you want to get a bigger quarantine tank. All you really need is a bare bones setup with the following equipment:

* Some type of filtration (a hang on the back of the tank power filter will work, just use filter floss without the carbon since carbon will remove medication from the water, being counter productive)
* Heater
* A powerhead and/or an airstone for increased surface agitation
* Test Kits for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate
* Fish Net - don't use the same net for your main tank

Fill the quarantine tank with water from the main tank and then turn everything on in the quarantine tank.

Freshwater Fish (Koi Fish) Quarantine
For newly acquired freshwater fish like as Koi Fish you will want to acclimate them to the water in the quarantine tank and monitor them very closely for a period of two to three weeks. Monitor the water parameters with your test kits and check for signs of parasites or bacterial infections.

If the newly acquired Koi fish does come down with something you will need to use the appropriate medication and you will need to keep them in quarantine for a further two weeks to make sure that you have indeed treated them effectively. If after a few weeks no problems develop, you can then acclimate them to the main tank water and then introduce them.

If a Koi  fish comes down with something while in your main tank, just net them and plop them into the quarantine tank. There should be no need to acclimate them because you used water from your main tank. If you didn't use water from the main tank you will need to acclimate them to the quarantine tank water. Diagnose the problem/disease and treat appropriately. After the disease clears up you will still want to keep the fish in quarantine for a week or so monitoring the water parameters with your test kits the whole time.

Saltwater Fish Quarantine
For newly acquired saltwater fish you will want to acclimate them to the water in the quarantine tank and monitor them very closely for a period of two to three weeks. Monitor the water parameters with your test kits and check for signs of parasites or bacterial infections.

If the newly acquired fish does come down with something you will need to use the appropriate medication and you will need to keep them in quarantine for a further two weeks to make sure that you have indeed treated them effectively. If after a few weeks no problems develop, you can then acclimate them to the main tank water and then introduce them.

If a fish comes down with something while in your main tank, just net them and plop them into the quarantine tank. There should be no need to acclimate them because you used water from your main tank. If you didn't use water from the main tank you will need to acclimate them to the quarantine tank water. Diagnose the problem/disease and treat appropriately. After the disease clears up you will still want to keep the fish in quarantine for a week or so monitoring the water parameters with your test kits the whole time.

Always have some extra saltwater ready in case you need to perform an emergency water change. Remember, you want to monitor those water parameters frequently (daily or at least once every two days). Many saltwater hobbyists always have saltwater ready just in case. You never want to mix up saltwater and add it right away. Freshly mixed saltwater can be fairly toxic to fish, in turn causing you more problems.

Conclusion
Freshwater hobbyists may get away with not using a quarantine tank, but saltwater hobbyists would be crazy not using one. Save yourself some money, headaches and especially the fish by having a quarantine tank. The fish in your main tank will thank you for it.

Author Bio
Mike is an editor at FishLore.com. Designed for beginners, FishLore.com provides tropical fish information, how-to guides, articles, fish profiles, FAQs, forums and more! www.FishLore.com - Tropical Fish Information

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Golden Koi, Hikari Mono

These are all metallic and “one” colored koi Fish. They are known collectively as “Ogon”. Hikari means shiny or metallic, and mono means one. Ogon means “golden”. You may often hear variations of the name to include “muji”, which also means “one”. It may seem like a “double emphasis” to say Hikari Mujimono, but it is still considered a correct variety name. I guess some people really want you to know that it really is just the one color. Then just to confuse us all, koi that have a matsuba (a black netting pattern, with the black at the center of the scale) pattern, but have one “primary” color are also in this group.

Koi like Gin (silver) Matsuba Ogon and Kin (gold) Matsuba Ogon are the more common examples of these. The Gin Matsuba has been called the “Leopard Ogon”, because the black centered scales can look to many people like leopard markings. The Kin Matsuba Ogon actually looks to me like it is more an Orange color, and Ray Armstrong in our club has an outstanding example swimming in his pond.Ogons come in many colors. The most common are Purachina (platinum or white), and Yamabuki (bright yellow or almost gold), but other stable types include the Cream (pale gold), Nezu (grey), Orenji (deep metallic orange), Hi (metallic red), and lesser known ones like Mukashi (bronze), and Kuro (metallic black). The original color was“Saffron”, which is supposed to be a golden orange, but I have never had the privilege of seeing this type. They can come in Doitsu varieties also. They may also have kin-gin-rin scales, but these koi are usually moved into the “Gin Rin B” class for koi shows.

Ogons are one of the easiest koi to see a skin quality that separates truly outstanding koi of all types, and just really good ones. It is called fukurin, or amine. Once you have seen with your own eyes this quality, one can work at picking it out in patterned koi. It can easily be confused with gin rin, or metallic,even by accomplished koi keepers and judges. But it is not the same. It is difficult to describe without an outstanding live example in front of you, but I will try. I am referring to a fine netting effect over the koi’s body. The layering effect of skin and scales, the subtle or dramatic difference in pigmentation and luster between the layers, and the difference in light reflection by scales and surrounding skin, all combine to produce this attractive effect. One should first look at the skin on the back of the koi, and then between the scales to distinguish this in your mind and “eye”.

This is where it is most obvious, but Ogon with visible fukurin extending to the belly area are said to be highly valuable. Once you have “seen it” you will not forget it. It is what makes a koi “pop out” in a pond. That indescribable “something special” that someone who has not studied koi and fukurin in depth will talk about.

They don’t know what exactly is different about a particular koi, but they know it is different. The difference is fukurin.Because these koi only have one color, the standard is quite severe. Of course, the basic requirements of koi appreciation must be present. Conformation and skin quality is all there is to judge on, because there is no pattern. They are more obvious if they are “not there” and therefore critical. Conformation interacts with skin quality for metallic koi in a unique way. The higher the luster, or reflective finish, the better quality is the skin. At the same time, the harder is the outline, and more demanding of the basic shape. The flat reflective finish is far more unforgiving in terms of imperfections, than the soft, non-reflective skin of other varieties. The outlines of metallic koi appear harder, very strongly defined.

For example,the rounded, trailing edge of the pectoral fin is almost transparent in many non-metallic varieties, especially younger fish, making a deviation from the perfect line hardly noticeable.A metallic koi, however, has solid looking, highly visible fins right to the tips. Poor quality Ogons unfortunately abound, and are often unfairly marketed as “rare” or “unique”.

Early Ogon types such as “Kin or Gin Kabuto”, which have a light colored head and a black “horseshoe” marking, and black body or black edged scales (not matsuba) are ones to watch out for. Ogons are among the fastest growing, and friendliest koi of all the varieties. This is often credited to their closeness to the original Magoi in breeding. If one wants their koi to hand feed, one common “strategy” is to buy an Ogon as they are usually
the most bold. The other koi will often follow the “lead” of the Ogon and be much friendlier. One of the most famous breeders of Jumbo Yamabuki Ogons in Japan is Izumiya, and for Platinum Ogons, is Choguro, both of the Niigata area. Our “Akachan” (baby) is from Izumiya, and sadly both breeder’s koi houses took major damage in last fall’s earthquake. Hopefully, they will recover and continue, as their koi have a distinctive and powerful presence that would
be missed.

When looking for a young Ogon, there are some important factors to concentrate on.
- Start with the head, as with most koi. It must be very clean, almost “bald”, with no spots or stains, and a highly reflective surface. Older Ogons tend to develop darker areas, and small pits on the head, which are not desirable. I like to see older siblings of any koi, if possible, when selecting koi. Gives one a “glimpse” into the future possibilities of the koi.
- The scales, and particularly the pectoral fins, must have the brightest possible shine to them. The shape of the pectoral fins is critical, and should appear large and well formed.
- The scale pattern must be perfect and symmetrical, leading the eye toward the tail. The light netting effect, already described, tends to highlight the neatness of the scaling very attractively.

Hikari Mono, or Ogon, are very popular among novice koi keepers and are one of the first types of koi many of us have bought. The trend is move away from these koi as one’s taste becomes more “refined”. Very serious koi keepers often move “back” to Ogons because of their quiet charm, the generally big size they achieve, and because to have an absolutely flawless example is an achievement in itself.We find that the contrast of a nice Ogon in a pond makes all the koi stand out and now find them an essential part of any complete collection.



Taken From :
Selecting a Young Hikari Mono, by BobWinkler, AKCA Certified Judge with Credit to Kate McGill, BKKS and ZNA Certified Judge