Nissai selection
Koi jobs are starting to back up a little.
The late summer tosai need a sort through. We have a load of cleaning up to do. We have fish in tubs here and there which need moving on. And, the nissai selection is a couple of months overdue.
Most of the nissai would be moved to the males tank system after selection - and as the males and females tanks are both ambient, and we're keen to get the heaters turned on in the females pond.. Amanda and I set our sights on the nissai yesterday so that we could make all the pond moves and start warming up the females tank.
I'm getting over a sore neck. Too much laptop time sat in the wrong position at my desk.. Anyway, that meant Amanda had to do all the lifting (!) Felt so bad about that, but she's getting pretty good at handling the fish and that left me with netting and photographing duties. And we did get through it all thank goodness. But kept the recording to a minimum so take the pressure of a little.
The nissai profiled in my recent post here ( sneaky peak on a few of the better nissai ) - the 2 step which is definitely female and I've left in the females tank where it will stay for the year. the other ones, I'm not sure on the sex and as a precaution - they've all been moved to the males tank. I will go through them again in June, just before the South of England koi show and if any are up to scratch, then I may take one or two along.
The final play of the day was to turn on the females tank heater and I will now hold the tank at 12 C for a few weeks to give those fish temperature stability as they come out of the winter season.
There were a few other females in the nissai, and they are pretty good and we spent quite some time deliberating over which ones to keep. bottom line is that we have limited space, and we've kept 1 nissai that's definitely female. and 5 other koi where I'm not sure on the sex. plus, the baby champs from last year which are still small and might be showable this year in size 3.
all the others, including the females, - tempting as it is to hang onto the larges females for one more season - I'm going to move on. that includes 'patch' which I really thought I was going to hang onto for another season. and that was the toughest one to decide on, but we are letting it go.
Here are some pictures from the day:
Here's Amanda handling 'headlights' - our sansai male from the 2014 spawning. now around 58cm. still hoping to show this koi at some point in the next year or two - in size 5.
Here's the 2016 All England Show baby champion - still looking good, but has a scratch on the hi on it's side. hoping that clears up by the summer.... now just over 35cm, so will review this in a couple of months before the next show.
And, here's some video of it:
click - youtube link
Here's the size 1 kohaku that won best in size 1 at the 2016 All England Show. (NB: it's filled out considerably since the show and still just under 25cm.)
reviewing the fry ponds... I really hope these work this year.
I've also been busy upgrading our QT and also installing another similar system that we may use for spawning in this year. it's using my home made filtration to keep the costs down. and, the new tank is sporting an air uplift - I didn't have a pump to hand when we got to the plumbing - so introduced the air uplift. Its something I played with about 5 or 6 years ago and have been meaning to have another go at it our our current place. I'll write that up in another blog post. today's job is leak testing the bottom drain. and typically - it's absolutely chucking it down outside right now. that may be why I decided to write up a blog ... putting off the inevitable drenching I'm about to get.
bye for now.
The late summer tosai need a sort through. We have a load of cleaning up to do. We have fish in tubs here and there which need moving on. And, the nissai selection is a couple of months overdue.
Most of the nissai would be moved to the males tank system after selection - and as the males and females tanks are both ambient, and we're keen to get the heaters turned on in the females pond.. Amanda and I set our sights on the nissai yesterday so that we could make all the pond moves and start warming up the females tank.
I'm getting over a sore neck. Too much laptop time sat in the wrong position at my desk.. Anyway, that meant Amanda had to do all the lifting (!) Felt so bad about that, but she's getting pretty good at handling the fish and that left me with netting and photographing duties. And we did get through it all thank goodness. But kept the recording to a minimum so take the pressure of a little.
The nissai profiled in my recent post here ( sneaky peak on a few of the better nissai ) - the 2 step which is definitely female and I've left in the females tank where it will stay for the year. the other ones, I'm not sure on the sex and as a precaution - they've all been moved to the males tank. I will go through them again in June, just before the South of England koi show and if any are up to scratch, then I may take one or two along.
The final play of the day was to turn on the females tank heater and I will now hold the tank at 12 C for a few weeks to give those fish temperature stability as they come out of the winter season.
There were a few other females in the nissai, and they are pretty good and we spent quite some time deliberating over which ones to keep. bottom line is that we have limited space, and we've kept 1 nissai that's definitely female. and 5 other koi where I'm not sure on the sex. plus, the baby champs from last year which are still small and might be showable this year in size 3.
all the others, including the females, - tempting as it is to hang onto the larges females for one more season - I'm going to move on. that includes 'patch' which I really thought I was going to hang onto for another season. and that was the toughest one to decide on, but we are letting it go.
Here are some pictures from the day:
Here's Amanda handling 'headlights' - our sansai male from the 2014 spawning. now around 58cm. still hoping to show this koi at some point in the next year or two - in size 5.
Here's the 2016 All England Show baby champion - still looking good, but has a scratch on the hi on it's side. hoping that clears up by the summer.... now just over 35cm, so will review this in a couple of months before the next show.
And, here's some video of it:
click - youtube link
Here's the size 1 kohaku that won best in size 1 at the 2016 All England Show. (NB: it's filled out considerably since the show and still just under 25cm.)
reviewing the fry ponds... I really hope these work this year.
I've also been busy upgrading our QT and also installing another similar system that we may use for spawning in this year. it's using my home made filtration to keep the costs down. and, the new tank is sporting an air uplift - I didn't have a pump to hand when we got to the plumbing - so introduced the air uplift. Its something I played with about 5 or 6 years ago and have been meaning to have another go at it our our current place. I'll write that up in another blog post. today's job is leak testing the bottom drain. and typically - it's absolutely chucking it down outside right now. that may be why I decided to write up a blog ... putting off the inevitable drenching I'm about to get.
bye for now.
