Ok, so you've read that in my large fry pond I harvested just 1k kohaku fry from a 27m x 12m pond- a big disappointment, and probably due to the shiro;s I've called the "loch ness" shiros growing large on a diet of koi fry.
Well, a bit of a turn up this evening. When I completed the kohaku spawning back in August - I moved the spawning ropes into a £25, 2k liter blow up kids pool, applied malachite green then moved the brushes out again.
I left the vat full of water, and ignored it for a week or two. Turned out I saw one or two hatchlings in there so I guessed a few eggs dropped off the spawning ropes and I started a little experiment to see whether I could rear them in 2k litres - a micro version of what I was doing in the main fry pond outside.
I let the water go green and added dahnia. I didnt add any filtration. I fed only a small amount - one medium pinch of food per day.
Tonight I drained down the tank - and there must have been atleast 200 fry. Yes - that is a fifth the amount I harvested from a pond far larger. Now, the average size of those 200 fry was smaller than the ones I harvested from the outside pond - but there are a reasonable number of good sized ones.
The other thing I did tonight was to inspect the "loch ness" shiro's. They were destined for ebay, but on closer inspection one isnt complete write off. and they are good growers (16.5cm at 3.5 months old!) So, I'm keeping them both and they've gone into the keepers tank which I will start heating soon. They are larger than the keepers I have in there, but only by 1 to 2 inches so they should co-exist with the others ok. They are a little experiment, and I dont expect to get anything decent from it but the growth will be interesting to monitor.
The pics:
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| Draining down the 2k vat with a pond vac sucking the water through a plastic Water Lilly basket |
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| Getting there now; I can't believe how many fry there are |
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| A closer shot of the kohaku fry. Not bad! |
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| Amazingly, the "Loch Ness" Shiro's are actually shiro-like. the top one isnt a complete write off, but I'm growing both on to see how they grow. |
And, some video of the shiro's -
"Loch Ness" shiro's
