Male & Female Koi. Breeding Koi, Goldfish
More Top Pond Keeping Tips: Click image right for UK pond products. Brushes in biofilters. Ask yourself why do you use brushes? Do you really need them ... possibly not. They do add to the cost without creating a major benefit in most small biofilters. Brushes in off the shelf conventional biofilters have such big gaps in them the only purpose they can serve is to remove long stands such as twigs, lengths of algae etc. For this purpose they are obviously fine .... is this what you want to achieve? For any other reason they are unsuitable. They don't do any harm ... they just make you poorer.
Male or Female Koi?
For you and me deciding the sex of koi is difficult to say the least with one exception and that's when the urge to breed in Spring takes over
Yes of course we would like to know because for one we've all been told female koi grow bigger than male koi.
This of course is very subjective and is a function not only of the koi but the owner's behaviour with respect to the koi in the pond.
It is apparently true that most winning show koi tend to be female.
It's next to impossible to determine sex of smaller fish which are not ready to breed.
For dealers specialising in growing and selling koi it's vital that the sex of koi are known as soon as possible.
I've probably said this before but just in case I haven't... breeding koi is a serious business and few make a living this way. If your reason to build a koi pond is to rear and sell koi then much homework and study of koi breeding and farming is required before taking the plunge.
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Male and female koi sex differences
Literature suggests that male koi tend to be more lithe looking, more fit, more sporting, more like a speeding bullet with clear cut lines. They apparently tend to be somewhat on the shy side like many koi keepers themselves. But I can't be sure of that and frankly I'm not sure the person who told me that is sure as well.
It's in spring when the male koi become obvious to us. Male Koi take on their breeding behaviour and often appear to have small white bumps on the head. Apparently female koi do not develop this symptom.
Seperating Koi Eggs and Fry... Spawning Brushes for Ponds
In spring when loves comes around the koi will
need somewhere to lay their eggs. In a natural environment eggs will
adhere to submerged aquatic plants but in a koi pond there are not
always plants because the koi tend to eat them. If the koi keeper
wants to breed koi then the pondkeeper must arrange to harvest the
eggs and this is best done by using a specially made soft fibrous
brush. The koi eggs are sticky and adhere to this
soft
spawning brush. Once
the fish have completed spawning the brush should be removed and
placed in a separate holding area (containing pond water)
otherwise the fish will eat the eggs
You'll be amazed at how simple it can be to breed fish with the help of Bradshaw's Spawning Brushes. You'll need one mature female and at least two males.
Read this message I got from one of my newsletter subscribers:
"Morning Tony, Yesterday my wife and myself sat next to the koi pond and watched the fish go crazy close to the surface of the water and around the polystyrene floating net you told me to make. I thought it was because of the fry in the floater or the food that gets washed out of the net, but after a while there was hundreds of eggs stuck on the net, just as you said it would happen." Regards, Phil Müller
Put the brushes one above the other at the edge of the pond. Spawning usually occurs in the early morning after a night of flurried activity and can take several hours. Most of the eggs will stick to the brushes which can then be taken out of the pond and put in filtered water of the same temperature. If the eggs are not separated from the adult fish they may be eaten.
Hatching should take around 3-6 days and then the small fish should be kept separate until they are large enough to be introduced into the pond.
Do not confuse these brushes with
filter brushes used effectively in pond bio filters (click link
to view the filter brushes)
It's quite easy to make a holding are by creating a floating fine mesh net attached to expandable polystyrene for example.
