A Week in the Life of a Koi Farmer (WC 16_03_26) – Spring Pond Care, Spawning Preparations and Tosai Releases

Time in the Shop

Taking a closer look at a batch of Maruhiro 10cm baby koi as customers study the different patterns and varieties.

The workload here at Byer Koi Farm is starting to ramp up considerably now. Not only are we busy in the shop and with online koi releases, but in parallel we are also preparing for a special Easter weekend release of BKF-bred tosai and, of course, this year’s spawning programme too.

The shop side of things is always one of the highlights of the week for us. It’s great seeing returning customers again and catching up on how their ponds are doing, and over the weekend we also welcomed a number of new visitors — which is always encouraging to see as word about the quality of our koi and the overall BKF offering continues to spread.

One returning customer who has been discussing their plans for adding a particular variety to their pond also reflected on how well their Mukashi Ogon — purchased as a nisai — has been doing since leaving the farm. The fish is now measuring a whopping 75cm and was described as a “proper battleship”, which is always great to hear.

That kind of feedback is always very satisfying. Our 'Opaline' Mukashi Ogon line has become one of our customers’ favourites over the years, particularly for those looking for an imposing koi that will really command attention in the pond.

Running a koi farm always involves balancing time and priorities, both in the short term and longer term. With that in mind, we’ve already secured the same time window for our trip to Japan this autumn as we had last year, when we’ll once again be selecting koi directly from breeders for the coming season.

Last weekend we also extended the shop opening hours by an extra day — opening on the Friday as well as the usual Saturday and Sunday. Lots of customers took advantage of the additional day, so it was a positive start for our new operating hours.

Preparing for Spawning Season

Thinking ahead to the spawnings, the females are plumping up nicely. Many are showing rounded bellies, which tells me they have been developing eggs. So far everything is progressing exactly as it should.

The next jobs are to audit all the spawning equipment, repair nets, order any replacement gear we need, and then clear a week in the diary early May to focus properly on getting the spawning work done.

Spring Pond Care: Managing Seasonal Changes for Koi

With koi husbandry, working out the priorities for your time is always important. One useful way to think about this is to ask whether there are any risk factors that are elevated at a particular moment.

Right now in the UK we are approaching the seasonal change from winter into spring. That brings with it certain risks which are well known and can be planned for.

We’ve had some warm days recently — almost summer-like a couple of weeks ago — and then very recently some very cold nights. In our rural spot we even had a light frost the other morning.

Koi thrive in stable conditions, so these swings in the weather can create stress for the fish. As a result it makes sense to increase monitoring accordingly.

Monitoring Koi Health and Checking for Parasites

We’ve been keeping a particularly close watch on the behaviour of the koi in our ambient tanks, looking for any signs of irritation or stress.

We scrape koi across all the ponds on site regularly as part of routine husbandry. That process allows us to spot parasites early and deal with them before they become a problem.

With the recent weather fluctuations we’ve increased the frequency of those checks so that we can stay right on top of things should anything need dealing with.

From my perspective parasites are fairly run-of-the-mill. The important thing is taking responsibility for spotting and dealing with any critters that take advantage of these changeable conditions, rather than waiting until a bigger problem develops when the impact on the fish will be much greater.

Now is the time for everyone to be giving their pond a spring clean, taking mucus scrapes, and dealing with anything you find. If you do happen to find parasites on your scrapes, don’t panic. It is certainly more tricky to deal with parasites when water temperatures are below 12°C, but it’s not impossible.

Spring Feeding and Filtration Adjustments

Another change we’re seeing in our ambient ponds is a gradual increase in feeding. Longer days and slightly warmer water temperatures mean the fish both need and benefit from a little more nutrition.

Of course, increased feeding means increased waste, which in turn places more strain on the biological side of your filtration.

In our ambient systems this effect is amplified because stocking levels are also increasing dramatically. Over the last few weeks we’ve brought hundreds of new koi into the sales room — actually about two thousand — with even more due to arrive over the coming weeks.

So alongside increased feeding and higher stocking levels, we are also keeping a very close eye on the simple ammonia and nitrite tests that everyone should be doing.

In a domestic pond the swings will usually be much smaller, but the principles are exactly the same. This is a good moment to check in on the performance of your biological filter and make sure it’s coping.

Preparing Koi for the Sales Tanks

A typical moment on the farm at this time of year — new koi being moved into sales tanks.

We are continuing to move koi around the site, populating the sales tanks and also extending the sales area itself. The sales room is now simply not large enough to hold all of our available stock.

The BKF-bred tosai are also well on their way to being ready for the sales tanks.

We’ve been mixing them with older koi to help socialise them with older more mature koi, to build their strength and to assist with the transition from their heated grow-on ponds — where they have been stocked densely and fed on high-protein growth food — towards conditions that are closer to what they will experience in their eventual forever pond homes.

Koi That Caught My Eye This Week

There are lots of stunning koi in this year's batch of BKF bred tosai, but of course there are always a few that catch my eye when I’m standing by the tanks doing my observations each morning and evening.

In particular there are some Aragoke and doitsu metallic koi with scales that appear almost inset, with strong fukurin around them. They stand out a mile.  Also, lots of Aragoke types in various metallic colours.

We can’t wait to share these with you over the coming weeks.

Originally we had been planning to release these BKF-bred tosai over the Easter weekend. However, we are slightly ahead of schedule, so you may start to see them appearing in the koi shop towards the end of March.

This Week’s Online Koi Release: Tosai Kohaku and Showa

We’re also planning another online release for the usual Friday evening slot at 8pm, and this week’s main focus will be tosai.

The tosai Kohaku were originally planned to appear in last Friday’s release alongside the Nisai. However, as we prepared the listings it became clear that they would simply get lost in a release dominated by larger Nisai.

The tosai grow-ons we have are excellent prospects and really deserve their own spotlight. So we decided to hold them back so they can feature in a dedicated grow-on release instead.

So if you were expecting to see the Kohaku tosai grow-ons last Friday and couldn’t find them — that’s why.

They’re still here, and they’ll appear very soon in their own special release where we can focus properly on the enjoyment of raising young Kohaku and watching them develop.

Alongside those Kohaku tosai we also have a wide range of other tosai varieties ready to accompany them in this Friday’s release — including Showa.

Watch out for more information on this week’s online koi release on the blog and across our social media channels over the coming days.