| -- End Ad Box ---> | | | | When spring is in the air water temperature is at |
| Koi are amazing animals. They have evolved | | | | about 15-20 degrees you will notice your fish may |
| originally from common carp and were originally | | | | go off there food. You may also notice three fish |
| thought of as throw backs. The koi world has | | | | swimming like an arrow around the pool. This is |
| grown massively and is continuing to grow at an | | | | two male fish and the female. The male in front |
| unprecedented rate. Years ago if you heard of | | | | will be looking for a place to spawn. This is the |
| someone spending £1000 on a fish you may | | | | time you put in you brushes. The brushes are like |
| have fell over, in this day and age this is | | | | a toilet brush but much softer. These brushes |
| commonplace. | | | | must be placed in the shallow water approx 6-10" |
| Quick sum for you to get you interested. | | | | deep. |
| Each kilogram of female koi will produce | | | | When the fish are ready they will start to thrash |
| approximately 200000 eggs if you hatch out | | | | over the brushes this normally happens in early |
| 100000 eggs and grow the koi to 2-3" which | | | | morning. |
| takes approximately 120 days. You will end up | | | | After approximately one hour you will see the |
| with 100000 fish a value of 60p each trade. The | | | | brushes are covered with eggs very tiny eggs. |
| cost of arriving at this point is approximately 10p | | | | The eggs need to be moved to a separate tank |
| per fish, you now have a profit of 50p per fish = | | | | or old bath or the parents will eat them. It is best |
| £50000. I hear you ask "why doesn’t | | | | to treat the eggs with malachite to prevent |
| everyone do it" Firstly is knowledge, you do need | | | | fungus a quick dip is fine as you don’t |
| a good degree of knowledge to do this. Secondly | | | | want to starve the eggs of oxygen. |
| is holding capacity you will need a large pool or | | | | The bath or tank must be setup to have running |
| recirculation system to achieve this. Thirdly, it is a | | | | water the flow needs to be 5 liters per minute |
| risky business, one thing goes wrong with the | | | | (very low) you can pump this directly from you |
| system and you loose your entire batch of fish. | | | | pond if you wish. When the water arrives at the |
| So how do you start? | | | | tank use an old bed sheet to filter the water. The |
| This is a long process and I will post these in 10 | | | | water needs to be as clean as possible or the tiny |
| parts of ezine. | | | | little particles will stick in the baby koi gills causing |
| Part one. | | | | slow growth and death. |
| Easy Spawning | | | | |