It’s not as out of reach as you might think to breed Koi fish for profit, as thousands around the world have done it with great success. Knowing how to do it, though, is another matter altogether; let’s review exactly what you need to do in order to breed Koi fish for profit and turn a very unique source of income into a business and a successful and profitable endeavor.
What’s Your Breeding Stock Like?
First and foremost, it’s critical that you have a good Koi breeding stock to source from and begin breeding on your own, or else your job may be over before it begins. A good stock means working with a good supply of quality fish, and you may need to spend some money to ensure biological and genetic diversity as you get started breeding Koi. A reasonable amount to spend on parents is around $1000 or more for a quality breeding pair of something like Kohaku. You’ll want to make sure that they are at least 3 years old as that is when they begin to be sexually mature. The value of your offspring will be largely dependent on the value of your parents, so choose wisely!
Get Your Breeding Ponds In Order
The next most important aspect of breeding Koi fish is having a high quality space for them to live and grow. Breeding ponds don’t have to be expensive, but you must ensure that they are safe and secure from predators and adequately cared for. In addition, it’s critical that you use specialized filtration equipment to generate clean water levels that are healthy and sustainable. Be prepared to spend some up-front capital on setting up your koi systems. You will need space and resource to handle all the offspring produced. Plan on devoting at least a couple hours a day to general feeding and maintenance. You can easily spend several thousand dollars on the initial investment of tanks, filters, medications, food, chemicals, water etc. so keep that in mind as you financially plan for breeding.
Don’t forget proper nutrition!
When you finally spawn your first generation of newly-bred Koi fish, congratulations – now the fun part starts! You must feed them hatched brine shrimp and crushed Koi pellets to ensure that their skin and scales are bright, and that they are healthy and vibrant. Feeding isn’t cheap, but it will help you reach the culling process, which can be one of the most difficult parts of breeding koi.
Culling takes the right mindset
When it comes to culling Koi, you can’t have a queasy stomach about it. Your koi parents will produce of 500,000 eggs at a time though not all will make it to the juvenile stage you can be certain that you will find yourself overwhelmed with little koi unless you have the space for them! Koi are the gift that keeps on giving! Certain fish won’t look great and won’t be good to sell to breeders or homeowners and just need to be removed to ensure you maintain the genetic stock. Because of that, it’s important to cull out the ones you need to remove, and do it humanely and quickly.
Selling: The Endgame
For most breeders, selling Koi initially isn’t the easiest thing to do, as it takes time to build up a reputation and prove that you produce quality fish. But rest assured that with hard work and a transparent process that shows buyers what you have been able to accomplish, you can, over time, breed Koi successfully and make it so that they turn a profit with their breeding and more. So what can you make selling koi? Some companies produce and sell 20,000 to 30,000 fish a year with prices ranging from $15 to $5000 each -these kinds of companies may do $500,000 a year before expenses.
In fact, when it comes to value koi can command some seriously large amounts of cash! One particular Showa specimen went for over $147,000. Oftentimes highly prized koi act as a status symbol for those wealthy enough to afford them. Similar to owning a rare historical artifact, these prized competition fish are a source of national pride for wealthy Asians as Asia is where koi breeding first started. Just as in horse racing, these fish are often bred by world renowned breeders for the explicit purpose of breeding a champion. However, most fish are pretty reasonable. For example, if you are reading this from the popular koi breeding location of the Philippines this article on “koi fish for sale” will give you an idea of the going rate.
Probably the four most common varieties that one will see in a koi competition are Showa, Sanke, Kohaku and Shusui. For the breeder at home interested in getting into breeding for profit these are 4 good varieties to start with.
To be sure, if you do it right and have quality fish you can easily get 10X the value out of your investment from breeding koi. The other good news besides all the eggs koi constantly produce is that they live a long time. A life span of 50 years is not unheard of and there are even stories of koi living to well over 200!
When it comes time to sell some or all of your koi the best way to sell them is to make sure you have some good, clear photos of them. Preferably put the koi in a royal blue container, with no glare, reflection or ripples in the water. Be sure to get the whole fish in the frame from straight above, not an angle shot. You may have to take a dozen or so photos to get one usable image. Then post those photos on whatever site or sites you would like to sell them on. Be patient, and be ready to invest some money to get started, but it is possible to breed Koi in this manner and make a profit!
I want to start a koi farm.Who can help me ?
Well a good start is a book called “Koi Breeding For Fun And Profit” on Amazon. Its really a series of articles but its a good start. You could also subscribe to something like Koi Carp Magazine where you could pick up a lot of useful information.
thank you, i just got the book.I live in south Ga and have lots of room to start .I also have A small sand beach looking pond that has some small fish in it. I think it will be better to keep the kio inside ,what do you think ?
Well, if you have the room to have them inside its certainly easier to
control for temperature and many other variables. You could always
put culled fish in the outdoor pond if you didn’t necessarily want to
euthanize them.
Can an above swimming pool 8500 gallon be converted into a koi pond
your pool can certainly be converted. In fact, many in ground koi ponds that are built are essentially the same thing-just set in the ground. I think you’ll want to look into pumps and filters designed specifically for koi ponds -they will often have UV filtration which is important for keeping certain mircobes down. You will want to have a bio-ball system that can deal with the nitrogenous waste that koi produce as well.
What temperatures are ideal for breeding koi and then keeping them healthy? How much sunlight is ideal? I am specifically interested in Butterfly Koi. Thank you!
Although koi can handle 35 to 85, 65 to 75 is ideal. As far as sunlight goes, you will want to create a pond environment where they can receive plenty of sunshine yet still have plenty of pond plants to provide cover.
I have a simple pond at home for 7 years.last year have borned many fish from the egg.now are still have thousends babies fishes.several days ago.there are born again eggs,so many,now become babies fish,so many.do some one have any sugestions for me? I’ll very apreciate and thank alot for…my whatup no;+.62816762955.
A couple weeks after hatching you should begin feeding your koi fry. For about a month, feed your koi fry liquid food or powdered food-and a good choice is egg yolk due to its nutritional content. It is critical that you keep your water quality in check. You need to make sure your water is sufficiently oxygenated.
Later you can use recently hatched brine shrimp (commonly known as “artemia” ) for the food source. Its also helps a great deal to have a separate, dedicated fry tank or pond.
Interesting article! I went to the pet store last fall for gold fish, and they gave me Koi by mistake. Didn’t think they would survive in the frozen over frog pond I built, but they did just fine, all survived and are growing really Fast! Beautiful fish.
i have koi eggs that did not hatch?what do u think is the cause for not hatching?
That is not uncommon. There could be lots of reasons they didn’t hatch but the most likely is that they simply didn’t get fertilized by the male. Between natural mortality, not hatching, culling etc. most of the offspring/eggs won’t make it -only a very small percentage.
I have a 1/4 acre farm pond that I can drain to remove native fish and start a koi farm. Is this a good way to start farming kois or does this cause problems?
And what about predators like raccoon, haron etc?
So for raccoons keep in mind that they, unlike koi, don’t love to swim so if you make your shorelines deep drop-offs that will help but a probably better way to defend against coons is to do a wire mesh across the entire surface of your pond but in your situation that wouldn’t be plausible so the next best thing is to install mesh fencing around 2 feet wide that extends from the shore and over the water (horizontally just above the water). Coons will not want to step on that for the same reasons cows won’t step onto metal bar grates (just one of those things). For the herons you can use a scarecrow style deterrent such as an owl (though a large blue heron scarecrow works best as they prefer to hunt alone) or a motion activated sprinkler (though that is probably best suited for small ponds). I suspect that the horizontal mesh fence will actually do a lot to deter herons though.
This method would work but while you have the pond drained you may as well dig the pond deeper to a depth of at least 4 feet. The other reason you will want to remove muck is to get rid of any critters embedded in the muck as well as fish eggs from the previous fish that existed in the pond. Try to have plenty of cover and places to take shelter especially if you’re area receives a lot of sun exposure. See my article on koi breeding for more information.
Ok so I built a 4000 gallon pond last week. And I was wondering if you could buy fish that are only last years babies and still make a profit off their babies down the road? I am in no rush to make any money off the fish but I want to know I can if I decide to take that direction.
If I am understanding the question correctly then yes you should still be able to turn a profit but really it comes down to the individual fish; what is the coloration, condition, size, type etc. These are all considerations that buyers will take into account when purchasing fish.
Good luck
I received three Koi last fall, all survived the very cold winter. Now very active and two against one. Will the males wear out the apparent female to the point of bad health?> Should the be separated at some point?
yes, the female can sustain injuries so really if you are looking to breed these fish its better to put them in a holding pen ;one female, one male.
Will i be able to get Gov’t Grants to start such a business as a koi farm. Can you suggest a website to apply for grants.
Well there are certainly opportunities for fed. Money for certain farms beyond terrestrial dairy farms etc. And those include a lot of operations for commercially important marine species ( and prob. some commercially important freshwater species) however koi are really considered ornamental here and gov. Agencies have put a lot of dollars into trying to curb the spread of carp. I’m not sure koi would fall into a category of commercial importance although in other countries where its eaten a lot more i’m sure there is a lot of gov. support for those kinds of farms. So the first group I would contact with this question is Blackwater koi farms out of central florida- they will have some good info. The route I would take is contacting a university researcher whose studies focus on US aquaculture and mariculture or perhaps a researcher that studies the nuances of farming the US. They should be able to at least get you pointed in the right direction.
I am 16 and wanting to get into the koi breeding business and was wondering what size pond should I make to breed a decent amount of koi and have enough fish and room to sell quite a few 3 to 5 inch koi and raise some koi to bigger sizes to sell later I also live in michigan and was wondering because we have very cold winters how deep should I make the pond. I was also wondering if you also had any tips on how to find people and places to sell these fish to and the average going prices for various size butterfly koi. And thank you for this wonderful article. And thank you for your time
Sincerely,
Gabe
Gabe, I am not sure how much space you have to start raising koi but folks with large operations have acres and acres of ponds. Obviously they all didn’t start big so really you could do a lot with a small operation to start with. Koi produce a lot of fry so if you had the facilities to house and raise the baby koi you could start to make some money. As far as the depth is concerned I would recommend a depth of at least 3 feet but four feet would be better and make your depth changes gradually slope down to the deepest depth. In Michigan you will want to have some sort of de-icer floating on the surface-there are a lot of koi pond supply places that have them. As far as pricing goes check out these guys in florida -they are a pretty well known koi producer. Prices can vary and it will depend on quality and coloration, fin length etc. (http://www.koisale.com/KoiStore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=108_67&products_id=219). Who will buy them? If I were you I would focus on building a relationship with companies that are going to buy a lot and move a lot -for example Petco sells butterfly koi and you could conceivably become a supplier for them. If you want to figure out how to sell koi first pretend that you want to buy koi. Where would you go to buy koi, ask people where they buy theirs etc. If you approach the problem from the other side you will then figure out how to sell koi. Right off the bat your local feed store may be willing to carry them (people that have horses and farms will often have koi ponds as well so it may work out well). The other thing you will need to do is develop a reputation for quality fish and that will happen through customer reviews that you publish on your website and entering koi competitions.
good luck
Can someone answer a question that I have//?
Do Koi parents eat their young??
Thank – you for someone to reply to this question
Typically breeders will have a separate grow tank or pond just for eggs/fry because adult koi will pick off eggs that are stuck to spawning brushes and suck up small fry as well.
why not just sell the “genetically inferior” as feeder fish or give them away?
I at one point had every fish eaten by herons and raccoons so all my koi are young 1-3 years and I just built a cover with chicken wire, pvc pipe, and zip ties. I couldn’t use a motion activated sprayer since i have dogs.
I have goldfish that seem to breed fine amongst the koi, I see two or three new pop up every year, does that mean koi fry will be able to survive just as well?
Will I be able to produce decent fish if i have koi ranging from sanke and ogon to scaleless utsuri? Im not really intending to sell
Certainly you should give away fish that you would otherwise cull -its a great idea. Your koi breeding won’t do as well if the eggs end up in the main pond with your goldfish as they love to eat koi eggs but certainly some will make it through predation pressure and reach adulthood. I think you will have successful koi breeding as long as you control your breeding situation such as two select males with the females in a breeding tank with breeding material for the eggs to attach to and you keep them safe from predation like goldfish.
I have 4 koi that probably measure around 20cm. My question is what tipe of food should I give them and how old are they? Also One of the koi i bought was black at the time and now is turning grey. Is that a problema with the care or is it normal?
Koi growth is very dependent on several factors like how much you feed them, quality of food, water temperature, amount of stress they have etc. An estimate of a 20cm fish is around 10 months. Type of food given can also affect a koi’s color. I recommend “Sho Koi”. Remember, pink birds like flamingoes are pink due to their diet of crustaceans which have a lot of pink in them so certainly you can have a fish turn grey due to food.
Hi Koi-Care staff,
I have simple question for you.
I have private pond in my property and I release some Koi’s years ago.
Now, I have full of Koi’s in my pond I think it’s more than thousand of thousand Koi’s live now.
My pond size is almost 5 Acres.
How can I sell this Koi’s for profit?
I’m in WA state.
Thanks
wow, that’s a big pond with a lot of fish! usually when you want to breed koi to sell you are culling out the ones you don’t want and keeping only those with the color traits that you want and that are worth the most. You have a couple options here:
1) do a search for koi keeping clubs in your local area and contact the main person for that and see if you can get in touch with their members to see if there is any interest in buying some or all of your fish.
2) contact a breeder in your area as they may want to come look at your fish and hand pick the ones they want or maybe they want them all?
3) contact local pet shops that sell fish and local farm stores/feed stores where pond supplies are sold-they may help you sell them to local pond owners.
Most likely any given fish isn’t worth a whole lot but there may be a few in there that have the coloration a buyer is looking for.
-good luck
Thank you for such an informative website.
My partner and I are are very interested in breeding Koi for selling later on.
There is a permanent spring fed dam on the property (holds 2 mega litres approx of water) that is the perfect breeding ground for fish. The water is drinkable and there are a few trees and shade areas at all times on this dam.
There is currently no fish in it but plenty of frogs and their offspring . There is a overflow run off that is a small creek. We realise that we will put a grate at this entrance so they dont flow downstream as well. We also realise that the frogs will get eaten so we are now planning a series of ponds that will house the Koi breeding pairs and seperate offspring ponds.
We are thinking of starting now with say about 4 Koi into the big dam and then when we have finshed the ponds and got the water/ environment right for them we can start to seperate into pairs.
we are in a temperate zone area of NSW, in Australia that gets some snow in winter and as warm as 40 degrees celc in summer months for Jan / Feb. Its about 1000 mtrs above sea level and a lovely place to grow old with our Koi I think 🙂
My question to you today is – should we buy 2 breeding pairs to start or 2 males and 4 females? and do the Koi interbreed between types- ie do they recognise say their own breed Showa to Showa or will they go Showa to say Kohaku if not seperated?
Should we just stick to the one breed to start and get 6 fish of 2 m and 4 f?
Also how do you tell a male from a female by looking down at them from the top of the water?
Should I tell the person we are buying them from that we intend to breed them for sale later on or not mention that bit?
Cheers
Victoria
Victoria, sorry for the delay.
should we buy 2 breeding pairs to start or 2 males and 4 females?
If you really want to control the genetic outcome I would recommend a 1:1 ratio however if you are more interested in high output I recommend a male to female ratio of 2:1. Females have the potential to lay a lot of eggs so more males means higher fertilization probability. I would not exceed that ratio though because breeding can be a bit rough and you run the risk of injure to the female from the males.
do the Koi interbreed between types ?
those are types not different species so yes, they will breed with each other.
With regard to which type to breed I guess that is something you will have to decide based on demand and potential sale price of each.
Also how do you tell a male from a female by looking down at them from the top of the water?
Females tend to have rounded edges and usually be a bit larger by comparison. Females, because they will someday carry loads of eggs have body shapes that are more rounded out vs. males which tend to be longer and thinner. Females will also have 2 vents but that won’t be noticeable until they are of breeding age (around 2 years). All of these traits are easier to analyze the older and larger they get.
Should I tell the person we are buying them from that we intend to breed them for sale later on or not mention that bit?
well thats a tough one, I assume you want to avoid them charging you a higher price and don’t want them to resent you because you are potential future competition. So maybe you may want to leave that part out and say you are collectors and are looking for some competition grade koi. Perhaps you can say that you plan on entering competitions (which you should do anyway to get your name out there)?
Good luck with the breeding and in the future, you are welcome to send me your story of your trials and tribulations of setting up a breeding pond -I’m sure my readers would love to hear about it (plus it would be great press for your business).
Im thinking about breeding and raising koi in my 15 acre pond, which is used as a seabass farm before. Its not a concrete pond, so I wonder if they can survive in such muddy pond. Is there any treatment I can do to assure their survival or shall I just breed and raise them in a concrete pond instead?
People have koi and breed koi in non-concrete ponds quite often. you certainly don’t need a special kind of containment to breed koi, look at carp in the wild -they breed just fine (and in some cases, too well)
I live in southern Ohio and want to start a Koi farm for profit in the future. Is it possible to have outdoor ponds that freeze and still be successful at breeding koi? Will they survive?
Klay,
yes its possible to have outdoor ponds for breeding sake in a cold climate. They will typically start to breed early summer. Will they survive they survive the winter? yes. Most pond owners will keep contstant aeration on the surface of their pond so it doesn’t get completely frozen over but they can certainly endure a frozen over pond (//koi-care.com/chilled-koi-koi-survive-frozen-ponds-winter/)
I tried to breed some of my koi today, but they did not really want to do anything. The female did look like she was going to deposit though. I attempted while it was daytime. They are used to seeing me while its dark under certain lighting because thats when I hand feed them. I have a small pond right now but I’m planning on a koi, sturgeon and starlet pond around 3000 gallons. Is there a size where koi become sexually mature or is it there age that matters. There both pretty young about a year or two old, the male is 12″ and he’s a butterfly (size not including fins) and the female is 12″ or a bit bigger and she’s a goshiki. Do you think I could breed these two koi together. I am using a commercial methods to breed them. All the other koi I have are less than a year old because my koi dealer sells koi based on size so I don’t think they will get in the way of the spawning. I have a small tank to keep the eggs and hatch them or should I use a breeding rope in the main pond. I am only going to use a small amount of the eggs so I’m not looking to make thousands of dollars. I am going to try to make the perfect koi, to sell or to keep and breed with other koi. I am kinda new to breeding any fish, but I have raised juviniles. I have female tancho and she has got 3″ in six months. I do hand feed all my koi. So is it possible to breed these koi or should I wait some time.
sexual maturity comes about around 3 years of age, as a general rule. Goshiki and butterfly together could work though I’ve never seen the results. They are all the same fish species so its certainly possible. I would stick with a separate tank for the fry.
I have a pool that is appr. 44’long by 15′ wide and I believe it holds appr. 40-45,000 gallons. It has not been used as a pool in at least 3-4 years and has turned into a pond. It is green and has plenty of algae in it along with leaves, etc. that has blown into it. There are little tadpoles and frogs of all sizes in and around it, so I am pretty sure that there are no harmful chemicals in it anymore. I would like to know what steps I should take to raise fish (koi, catfish, tilapia, etc.) Which ones (or combination) would be the easiest to raise and then profit off of down the road? I have tried to do some research and I know that I can’t use the pool pump and would need one or two pond pumps along with some tanks or barrels (not sure what to put in them) to filter the water and provide aeration. Also, I believe I need some water plants (not sure what kind) in the pool and possibly in the tanks also to help with the filtration. I really would love to do something fun and profitable with the pool since it is not used anymore. Thank you for any help!
sounds like a good sized pool. Might as well do something productive with it if it won’t be used for recreation. First thing I would do is make sure there are no obvious leaks like there would be from small cracks in the side. If the water level appears to be steady then you are probably fine. You will need filtration certainly. Pumps won’t be cheap no matter what brand or size you choose so be aware of that. In terms of what to breed I guess I would try to determine what is being readily purchased. For koi that will be everyday koi owners but for catfish or tilapia that will be the food industry which will mean that you’ll be dealing with regulatory agencies. Tilapia grow in anything so if you wanted to grow food fish that is what i would choose. For koi, you will have to know what you are doing if you are going to raise show koi that fetch thousands but if you just want to raise so called run of the mill koi then I’m sure it feasible. In terms of learning where to start and the like I recommend a book on my site that takes you through all the steps -its a good book, only 20 bucks and you can get a refund if you don’t like what you see (//koi-care.com/koi-resources/). I also try to make my site and articles user friendly to those just starting out so naturally I will recommend my site as well. If you have the time to put into it I think it will be rewarding.
Good luck!
So I have a large pond. The koi have been laying eggs and I now have 2 crops of the fri and there’s soon to be one more. How can I filter the pond go prevent the fri from being aten till there a few weeks old. Also I would like to do some breading. Is is true spawning is triggered by sudden change in temperature? If so could I get them to spawn whenever? I also need to know the size tank I need to breed. But the important part is getting my fri filterd from the big one witch have aten of the little one till they where a bit bigger .
Ideally, you want to have a breeding tank with a spawning mop or something similar so that when the eggs are laid and fertilized they are contained in the tank and then the adults are removed. Temperature can trigger spawning as can several other sudden changes in the environment. Spawning tanks are usually tub sized or larger containers.
-grant
I have a 400 gallon pond with about 16 koi, about 10 are 2 to 3 years old and 24 incest or more. I’m certain at least several of them are female. I successfully bred 4 of then in a separate shallower pond I grow lily pads in back of the larger one.it only took 1 night under a full moon and I had 100 of eggs. I only scooped a few handfuls out and successfully have 20 or so fry doing very well in a smaller tank. Last night I was ready to try again to get another batch going.it was a new moon 2 months later and it is mid July here in florida.Nothing happened last night. My question is, does it take them more than 1 night to spawn? Should I give them another few days? Is the water temp to warm this time of year or perhaps 4 is to many.Would switching out one of the koi for perhaps aother make a difference or maybe instead of 4 koi should I only have 3? Sorry so many questions but we are new to this and are very interested in making it a buisness.
People will typically do two males and one female-you don’t want the females getting beat up too badly. Spawning is usually in early morning and can be triggered by some drastic environmental change like a temp. Change. You could try changing out one the males-it may make a diff. In your spawning outcome. By the way, in terms of sexing the koi there are definitive ways and subjective ways. Subjectively, people will compare pec fin shapes but the definitive method is by inspecting the vent. Females will have 2 slits, males only one
I have recently purchased a covered redundant reservoir with a compacity of 2.2million gallons of water, would bredding Koi be suited to such an environment? Or would you suggest breeding a different species of fish?
You could certainly use that resevoir for rasing the fry, the actual breeding part you would want to do in a small tub with some sort of spawning mop as a substrate for the eggs. You may also want to look into raising tilapia. It would be a matter of doing an ROI analysis on both species while also taking into account that raising food fish will have a different set of regulations and protocols.
I just separate the female koi for a month and feed her with lots of high protein foods and live foods and then place her in the breeding tank with two males during fullmoon. I have high success on this technique
Im selling of my 23 imported japanese koi which about 2 -3 years old coz job transfer.Interested can email or call me.0107033457. Location- Bandar Mahkota Cheras Selangor. Make appointment upon viewing. Tq
I just want to know if 1 male can fertilize twice on a separate occasion?
Yes, certainly
I want to start farming of koi carp fish I live in Kano Nigeria where shall I get the breed can I import the eggs from other countries by courier postage.
you will want to source your koi fry or parental breeding stock locally if possible but for starters contact these folks as they will be able to tell you if they can send you breeding stock. https://www.koisale.com/
-grant
hi,koi are my favorite fish. i have applied for college and cant find a job in aquatics and needed a way to make my own money quick. i have a 70ltr tank and a pond i was wondering would the tank be suitable to hold fry till they get big enough to go into the pond thanks :]
Yes that could work but you will have be selective in which ones you keep in there as that is not all that much room.
Hi Koi care staff, can you please help and teach me what to do with my silver Koi with lots of egg in her, I have a small pond here in the Philippines (100gallons), and I have few 3 colored koi ang some pink tilapia in the same pond. I don’t have anyknowledge about breeding..
Hoping you could give me some advice..
Thank you very much and more power to all..
make sure you have lots of vegetation or something for the koi fry to hide in. I don’t know about tilapia but I am sure they would eat baby koi if they got the chance. If you want to cull you can but I would think about increasing the size of my pond or perhaps having a second pond for baby koi only.
-Grant
I would like to know how big does a pond have to be in order for fish to grow big and health,and if its fine to keep baby fish in a tank.
it really depends -some preformed koi pond shells are 100 gallons, some folks have large ponds dug that are around 20,000 gallons. Baby koi (fry) can be kept in an aquarium.
How long before spring spowning season do you put your bredding pair into your bredder pond
Once a temp.of 65 degrees has been reached in the pond you will want to observe your koi and watch for chasing or nudging behaviors. Spawning occurs from 65 to 77 degrees with 68 being ideal.
-grant
I have had koi for about 15 years now.I started out in a small plastic pond,about 300 gallons.I had a larger pond made that holds about 2500 gallons of water.I have 2 large waterfalls,and it gets lots of aeration.I became interested in breeding my fish last year.I had 17 fish,about 12 to 16 inches,and all were in good health.When they spawned last year,after they were finished,they all started gaping their mouths open and were turning sideways like they were dying,and consequently,11 of my big fish died .I changed the whole pond water,and after 2 days,I checked the water,and put the survivors back in.
. I managed to save 6 of my fish,but I don’t know what killed them.I suspected something was wrong with the water,so I took out the ones I could save.I still got 25 babies,hatch,but I dont know what happened to them.One suggestion was that there was too much biomatter in the water,and suffocated them.Is that possible?I don’t want this to happen again…any explanations or ideas?
Sorry for the delay in responding. How warm was the water at the time you had these strange koi behaviors? When its warm out the water is warm and holds less oxygen and problem with waterfalls is that their ability to aerate is restricted to as far as the water falling penetrates into the pond -in other words when you have air stones at the bottom of the pond you get full aeration from top to bottom and you also create a bit of circulation (air rises and brings water up with it and of course that rising water must be replaced by sinking water). Secondly, you have been experiencing compounding issues of insufficient aeration plus high nitrogenous wastes in the water (ammonia, nitrites). Another possibility is that you had a large rain event which caused runoff to enter your pond and the runoff contained perhaps insecticides from a recent spraying. The usual suspect however is ammonia and nitrites but I can not say with any certainty as those symptoms can be from several things.
I have four questions.
1. Where is the most reliable place to buy my Koi fish.
2. Does local pet stores like Petco and Petsmart have high quality koi?
3. What is the best way to maintain the beautiful colors of a koi fish?
4. how will you move your koi fish to the koi competition center?
Where is the most reliable place to buy my Koi fish.
I like these guys: https://www.koisale.com/ and https://blueridgekoi.com/
Does local pet stores like Petco and Petsmart have high quality koi?
Not sure, haven’t purchased from them but probably not.
What is the best way to maintain the beautiful colors of a koi fish?
There are foods like this that are formulated for color enhancement.
how will you move your koi fish to the koi competition center?
Not sure what your are asking here.
Good luck with your koi breeding.
-Grant
I have tried to breed last year. But no chasing game.
I have a breeding pond with own filtering system, the size is 4×3.5×3.5 feet. The parents are about five years old and over 1.6 feet.
I am in Sydney Australia, now is end of winter. Water temperature is about 55F.
Any guide to start breeding? I heard separate female one month before breeding and feed high protein food. Or change water temperature between living and breeding pond.
This article is a good place to start.
We have a pond that essentially round. It is about 14 ft. across and about 3.5 ft. deep at the deepest point. We lined the upper part of the pond with broken slate this year. We have several large koi and gold fish in the pond and were somewhat surprised to find koi fry in the pond this year. We always overwinter outside, and have had no problem with that in the past. My question is whether or not the fry will survive the winter. They range in size from about 2 in. down to about .25 inch.
with overwintering its all about fat reserves -thats what gets them through it. The kinds of small sizes you are quoting are pretty small. I would be dubious that they would make it. If you have the means you may consider bringing them in.
-Grant
can koi breed in a tank
I need some fish for start up. Anyone has culled out fish etc that they are willing to donate. Message me at facebook at habitats pets ponds and gardens