Showa ·
Kuroku of the June 18 showa spawning
The pools we have prepared in the new polytunnel are finally ready to take hatchlings. And that's kicked off the kuroku process on our recent showa spawning. The is splitting the white hatchlings from the black ones, and we will just grow on the black ones.
We're new to showa, but I understand that if the hatchling doesn't have any black at that stage in it's life - it will not develop it later. And, as showa needs some black colour, we are able to perform what is basically first selection at the hatchling stage.
We have 2 cage nets of showa hatchlings, and far fewer hatchlings in each cage net that we'd get from one of our more successful spawnings. But I can tell you having sunk many hours into the selection over the last few days... there are more hatchlings there than I first thought!
The other good news is that the proportion of the spawning that is presenting as black hatchlings is reasonably good; at least 50% and probably more like 60%.
The end result of all this is that.. if we can rear the black ones, we should have enough for a small, but reasonable harvest.
Here are some pics from the weekend:
And some video:
https://youtu.be/TovaqVQOYAY
We're new to showa, but I understand that if the hatchling doesn't have any black at that stage in it's life - it will not develop it later. And, as showa needs some black colour, we are able to perform what is basically first selection at the hatchling stage.
We have 2 cage nets of showa hatchlings, and far fewer hatchlings in each cage net that we'd get from one of our more successful spawnings. But I can tell you having sunk many hours into the selection over the last few days... there are more hatchlings there than I first thought!
The other good news is that the proportion of the spawning that is presenting as black hatchlings is reasonably good; at least 50% and probably more like 60%.
The end result of all this is that.. if we can rear the black ones, we should have enough for a small, but reasonable harvest.
Here are some pics from the weekend:
And some video:
https://youtu.be/TovaqVQOYAY
