KOI BREEDING PROCESS IN JAPAN | Artificial Koi breeding [BREEDING KOI FISH]
Like 3 Dislike 0 Published on 23 Mar 2020
It all starts with the Koi breeding process, the most important activity for a Koi Farm which determines the future of the farm. It requires knowledge and skill, which in Koi breeder families is passed on generation on generation. Whereby most of the breeders make use of a manual spawning process for their best Koi varieties, in order to maximize the number of offspring.
In this video we will share with you how Japanese Koi breeders perform their Koi breeding activities. We take a look at the Marudo Koi Farm, where we spend time together with the breeders to get a better understanding of the Koi breeding process. From preparation until the release to the mudponds.
The Marudo Koi Farm, just like many other Koi farms in Japan, make use of concrete ponds as spawning areas. Each of the ponds is provided with a small mesh net and several spawning brushes. The female Koi is placed in the spawning pond for several hours. Thereafter usually two, sometimes three male Koi are placed in the same pond to get the female ready and in the mood for spawning in the next upcoming night.
Most likely during the night or in the early morning the oyagoi, or parent Koi, will start spawning. At Marudo however, the koi breeding process is not done on a natural basis. For this reason, the Marudo staff is checking each hour if spawning activity already can be spotted. This means a selected number of staff have to stay awake during night time and observe the behaviour carefully.
Most Japanese Koi breeders choose to manually breed Koi to enlarge the number of eggs that will be fertilized. This roughly increases the number of offspring by 3 or 4 times the amount. Especially for varieties kohaku, sanke and showa the breeder wants to maximize the number of offspring. In order to have a larger amount of offspring to select from. Already in the first selection, at an age of 3 to 4 weeks old, roughly only 10% of these offspring will be selected for the next round. For one coloured Koi, like the chagoi and karashigoi, the Marudo Koi Farm applies the natural way of breeding. As for these variety of nishikigoi it is less important to have large numbers to select from.
At the moment when the oyagoi start to rush and the male Koi more aggressively bumps into the female oyagoi, the Marudo staff will start to prepare the manual process of breeding. The female Koi is threatened with the saline water, to ensure the Koi is bacteria free and disinfected. As the breeder wants to prevent to have any water in the bowl with eggs, the Koi is rolled in towels.
The Koi is turned around above the bowl and carefully as many eggs as possible are extracted from the female Koi. Large female Koi produce over one hundred thousand of small eggs. The male Koi are netted and sedated in a Koi bag one by one. A liquid relaxant is added in the Koi bag, this will make the process of extracting sperm easier. Thereafter the sperm is extracted.
The next step is to mix the eggs with the sperm. At Marudo Koi Farm, the female eggs are split into two or three batches that will be mixed with sperm of two or three different male Koi.
The eggs are carefully dispersed over the spawning brushes, ensuring as many of them will stick to the brushes. The breeder wants to prevent that eggs will join on to each other. Too many eggs that stick together or to each other at a single place will decrease the amount of successful hatches.
Around 7 days after spawning, the newly hatched Koi fry will be counted and prepared to be transferred to the outside grow ponds. The so called mud ponds. From now on the Koi fry are ready to become true Nishikigoi. In these mud ponds, the Koi will develop and grow quickly.
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