Catalogue of tosai from the June and July 16 spawnings
Following the last post, here are the identification pictures and video of the rest of the tosai we are growing on from the early and mid summer spawnings.
By way of a reminder, the june 16 spawning was made up from our trusty males pairing - the same pair that spawned the may 16 spawning (and the same pair behind all 3 of our baby champions), and for the female - we went with 'sharkey' which is our large momotaro female. back at first selection, we harvested only around 5-7k of from this pairing and I'm chuffed we still have so many growing on considering the low first selection numbers.
the july 16 spawning is made up from that same males pair, this time put with our new 3 step takigawa female. the spawning went well but we lost most of the eggs through fungus. we grew on a sample of fry, numbering around 600 at first selection. the video below shows the remaining keepers - some of these are being kept for development interest only.
the way the tanks have been working is that the july 16 spawning fry have been growing on in the green vortex tank. we went through that a few weeks ago and moved the keepers into the same tank as the june 17 'sharkey' babies. i took a video of the july 16 keepers to identify them before moving them:
click - video link
when we seine netted the sharkey babies (june 16) tank - it also contained the keepers from the july 16 spawning - and we didn't separate the koi before taking the next set of photos. so the following identification pictures include both the july 16 and june 16 spawnings. the vast majority are from the june 16 spawning. the july 16 koi are identified in the video above.
ok, a little convoluted... but, we do have an audit trail! a rule of thumb when looking at these photos is that if the koi is on the orange side - it's probably from the july 16 spawning. the reds are less well developed, partly because they are younger, and partly because the green vortex tank they've been raised in was covered.
here are the pics:
The next selection point for these fish will be around april/may time, when I'll be reviewing options for this years shows.
i spent some time yesterday morning going through a few of the nissai.... one or two look promising, and I'll share those pics and video in the next blog update.
By way of a reminder, the june 16 spawning was made up from our trusty males pairing - the same pair that spawned the may 16 spawning (and the same pair behind all 3 of our baby champions), and for the female - we went with 'sharkey' which is our large momotaro female. back at first selection, we harvested only around 5-7k of from this pairing and I'm chuffed we still have so many growing on considering the low first selection numbers.
the july 16 spawning is made up from that same males pair, this time put with our new 3 step takigawa female. the spawning went well but we lost most of the eggs through fungus. we grew on a sample of fry, numbering around 600 at first selection. the video below shows the remaining keepers - some of these are being kept for development interest only.
the way the tanks have been working is that the july 16 spawning fry have been growing on in the green vortex tank. we went through that a few weeks ago and moved the keepers into the same tank as the june 17 'sharkey' babies. i took a video of the july 16 keepers to identify them before moving them:
click - video link
when we seine netted the sharkey babies (june 16) tank - it also contained the keepers from the july 16 spawning - and we didn't separate the koi before taking the next set of photos. so the following identification pictures include both the july 16 and june 16 spawnings. the vast majority are from the june 16 spawning. the july 16 koi are identified in the video above.
ok, a little convoluted... but, we do have an audit trail! a rule of thumb when looking at these photos is that if the koi is on the orange side - it's probably from the july 16 spawning. the reds are less well developed, partly because they are younger, and partly because the green vortex tank they've been raised in was covered.
here are the pics:
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| the koi, bottom right. I've profiled this one in the past and a few months ago, this was one of the top two in terms of red and while quality. shape wise, is ok but i'm not sure whether it will be strong enough later on. time will tell. |
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| this fish looks so much like it the july 14 spawning ones did at this stage, it made me pause and check the roster of photos to make sure I've not identified this as coming from the wrong female. my records show it came from sharkey. either way, the skin and red are looking good. i'll be interested to see this one at the next selection point |
The next selection point for these fish will be around april/may time, when I'll be reviewing options for this years shows.
i spent some time yesterday morning going through a few of the nissai.... one or two look promising, and I'll share those pics and video in the next blog update.
