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.