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kevip711

Koi Eggs

kevip711
18 years ago

What do Koi eggs look like. We have hundreds of clear round pencil tip size balls that are stuck to the side of the pond in and around the plants that we have. We only have one small built in shelf for lilies and a few other water plants and this is the only place we have seen them. The koi also seem to be eating them too.. any ideas?

Comments (33)

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Ok found a web site with pics. This is identical to what I have but mine are a bit clearer.. any advice on how to make sure they make it.. the other koi are eating them like crazy so would like to remove some and at least have some survive. Also how do you know when the male has done his business to fertilize them.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Eggs

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    This is a brand new pond. Very little algae growth at all. How long before they turn into baby koi? I just noticed the eggs yesterday, only two days after I added fish. Ammonia level should be ok, 3,500 gallon pond only 7 small fish, my filtration is rated for a 5,000 gallon pond, but will test the water in a day or two. My pond is still at least 500+ gallon short as its not even filled all the way as I havent finished the border for the pond. Also I dont have a seperate tank with air or water circulation so I am assumming it would be a wasted effort to just put them in a large container and try and grow them?

  • mike_il
    17 years ago

    Kevin, The koi have to be 3 to 4 years old to have babies and if all the koi are small than I would assume they are not koi eggs. Do you have any goldfish in the pond?
    Mike

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Nope they are koi eggs, I confirmed it. I have one or two koi that are at least a few years old I would think, I believe the Ogon is the female I think. The pics I looked at matched exactly what I see.. almost all the eggs are gone as the koi ate them. There a few left on the plants and liner which I will leave alone.. but I cant explain it, the koi are young but they are koi eggs.. I even caught them hiding in the plants and was wondering what they were doing.. anyway Mike I am more concerned with why my UV only works at certain positions on the three way valve and why I cant get good flow to both jets and waterfall. Like I said I really can only get flow to one or the other and UV only works in one position... I am clueless to the problem.. my guess is the pump sucks.. but maybe there is a chance I am not doing something right.. I need all the help I can get cause I am not a happy camper right now... my only positive is the check valve made the bottom drain work...

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Still have a few left.. not sure I have a male to be able to fert them as most my fish smaller than 12 inches except for one.. some seem to turning white which means they are rotting.. will keep an eye on the remaining.. I may even drain the pond a bit so that they can live in the plant shelf I made if they actually hatch.. I looked at the process online today and it seems very difficult to even get koi to a point were the other koi dont eat them.. may have to wait till the next spawn and try to keep some seperated.. will see. I read 3-7 days before I get the minnow koi.. it only been about 2-3 days..

  • beeccles
    17 years ago

    I have 2nd generation eggs. The proud parents are a male asagi and a female hi shiro. both fish are 2 years old. I built a spawn pond so I can breed my colors. Raising babies really isn't that hard. I have a 75 gallon water tub I bought at the local feed store. I scooped out the eggs from the spawn pond using a bucket and taking care that air does not come in contact with the eggs and put them in the nursury tub. I use a small pump and filter combo to keep water moving in the tub. As the babies start to grow, I use my food processor or blender...whatever is available when my wife isn't watching...and grind my koi food to almost a powder. The babies will eat on this until they are large enough for normal food. Early stages of babies lifes, we'll feed them 5 to 6 times a day...just a pinch or two of the meal. When they are large enough for normal feed...I cut back to twice a day.

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    I was planning on buying a small aquarium for my next spawning.. you said no air is needed? just circulation?? All my koi are top of the line so was hoping to sell some at some point.. spawining could happen any day as a few look like they are ready... any advice is appreciated. send to kevip@excite.com thanks

  • beeccles
    17 years ago

    Kevin, If you have a feed store (horses cows etc) you can buy a watering tub. Add a filter and pump and you have the makings for a decent nursery. When you do transfer the eggs from the pond to the nursery...use a bucket and scoop of the eggs...I was water hyacinths and water lettuce for the eggs to collect on...If you scoop up below the plant you should do well preventing air getting to the eggs.

  • ponderer1984
    17 years ago

    i have a 9x 5 pond in my yard with 2 18" koi and a whole bunch of smaller guys,koi,comets,etc.... 2 weekends ago around 8am i noticed them ALL starting the spawn. everything in the pond was being chased or doing the chasing,fish from big to small...then they stopped around 2 in the afternoon and that was it until about 1 week later i saw 2 fish foolin' around,but it was only for a few minutes. its been 3 weeks since i saw the first activity and havent seen anything since. do koi start and stop and actually "finish the deed" whenever is comfortable for them? Ive had a pond for years but never had fish spawn so i could use some help here. thanks guys! -ponderer

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    I have had two spawns in the last 2 months.. the males bother the female until she lays the eggs.. I havent yet had the chance to get any good amount of eggs to harvest, This last one I only got about 20 eggs, so far after 5 days nothing.... I am setup now with a tank ready for the next one as I think it will be soon as the fish are running around lately and the platinum that I have is growing a big belly again. I dont actually have experience growing the eggs, but will try and get the eggs quickly next time, as the eggs are eaten almost immediatly after they are layed.. seems koi eat there own??

    On your question, once the deed or eggs are layed the males leave the female alone.. I have heard and seen it can be very violent and can actually hurt the female. So far though mine have not hurt anyone..

  • Jonathanfong_11_hotmail_com
    17 years ago

    I have had two spawns this year, one around june and one in august (right now). I didn't catcht he one in june cause my pond was covered with algae and I couldn't see anything in the pond so I had to clean it out, which is how i found out they spawned cause I found two baby koi that were about an inch long and my friend had given me a couple of his babies that were from the same time and size. When I moved my koi back into the pond the just spawned right away without a lot of chasing, the female was the one who was actually chasing the big male when I put them in and the next day there were eggs. Does anyone know if this is normal cause this is my first year doing this alone.

    Right now it's the third day and most of the eggs were either eaten or bad and there are a few that are starting to hatch.

    does anyone know how to tell what colours are going to show when they are babies cause I would like to cull them and hope that in a I can start selling them in a year.

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    No idea I have had two spawns since I have had my pond, I tried harvesting a few to no luck, all egss turned white and died..

  • fong_11
    17 years ago

    how did you harvest them?? did you treat the water for fungus?

    and what temp was the water where you kept the eggs? cause if you keep it at about 70 you should have tonnes of fry in about three days.

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    A little late now.. I dont think the koi breed this late in the season but I could be wrong.. I was going to put them in my indoor aquaruim which is about 75F, but as of late no eggs to report.. been waiting for a month or so as I got an offer to buy some of them.. I have the shrimp stuff and everything ready for them but just have to wait.. looks like next year though as none of the fish look pregnant..

  • fong_11
    17 years ago

    yeah, I was kinda surprised when mine spawned...this late. but it might be possible that you missed thier spawn, thats what happened the first few times they spawned. but I'm not sure how your winters are cause if they are kind of warm they might still be able to spawn. but most spawning takes place in may till august...

    are those pics from this year?? cause your platinum and kin matsuba look pregnant in the pics and look almost ready to lay...but it's kinda hard to tell cause I don't know if its from the water distortion.

    but your setup sounds great. make sure you don't get any dragonfly/damsilfly larvae in the tank or else they will eat the fry. I lost almost half the spawn to them this year. oh and your gonna need something to move the water, I find a bubbler with an airstone works best until they are big enough for a filter.

  • richard_usakoionline_com
    16 years ago

    I am in the North Panhandle and I had a spawn in the middle of March. The water was still cold but,I know this because I have little bitty baby Koi all over the pond. My pond is about 150'X 100' and 10ft deep. I sell and raise Koi and the eggs get eaten right away unless they are in a larger pond. I have a site and it is under construction. You can email anytime richard@usakoionline.com

  • sweet_lemon
    15 years ago

    A couple years I had a really big koi spawn after I moved the herd to their larger pond. About 40 babies survived. Raising them was one of the most fun things I ever did. I ended up keeping about 6 of them and gave the rest away.

    The koi I had started with were cheapo pet store fish. I did pick them out carefully over a few months, but they were not expensive koi by any means. Well, some of their off-spring have turned out to be quite pretty.

    I did separate the babies from the parents in a small pond connected to the larger pond situation. The whole process was very much fun but a lot of extra work. Now I just let nature take its course when they spawn, and no new babies the past couple years.

  • gardengranma
    15 years ago

    I have had koi and probably goldfish spawn for years. Last year I enlarged my existing pond and added another hoping to separate the koi (about one foot each) and the goldfish. I also put all the plumbing and filters below ground level. No skimmer, just a long pipe with holes under the gravel of the lower pond. Water is circulated once per hour. Well, the two ponds are connected by a waterfall and guess what, now I have koi babies and lots of them in both ponds (I can tell from the color). I had lots of string algae this year because of the new water I guess, and cleaned that up by hand, but there is lots left in the bog that I put between the waterfall and the goldfish pond/swimming hole. I am not doing a thing right now, I just wait till I clean the ponds and take out almost all the fish. Then I separate and give the fish away or put them into my two smallish plant ponds/nurseries. I also had lots of tadpoles (like thousands), most of them probably toads and some frogs. That comes from organic gardening -- after a few years everything just thrives.

  • tuder96
    15 years ago

    Interesting thread. Question How do I tell the males from the females?
    I have had my Koi now for 5-6 years and am sure they have spawned a few times. The first 3 years the pond was a small one but when we bought this house I put in about a 6000 gal 3 foot deep one 2 smaller settling ponds about 300 gal each a stream and a waterfall. My koi were all freebies from a friend who wanted to cull his pond and didnt want to kill them so I said hey I just built my pond Ill take them.
    I did buy a very nice black and silver butterfly from a pet store and he/she has deff had a hand in the spwan process as I have 4 baby koi about 3 inches long they are black and silver same markings just regular finned and one dalmation looking baby. I used to have another pond hooked into the old house that was an above ground 8'8'x2' that fed back into the pond by means of a stream full of plants and rocks
    I still have the shell I can redo it as a breeding pond but first I need to have more info anyone have a good site for breeding koi? I want to see if I can breed the butterfly with my gold koi. thanks for the info I wont even get into the goldie and feeder fish breeding I just look at let nature do what it does with fry

  • kevip711
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    You can buy netting for catching koi eggs.. or can even use aquarium filter media to catch the eggs.. as for female and male its pretty easy to tell once they are over 12 inches.. males have torpedoe shaped bodies and females are more stunted or fat.. I know there are some fin changes between the two but cant remember the differences off the top of my head... but the body shapes are easy to tell apart..

  • organic_doddy
    15 years ago

    Hi I have quite an urgent matter and I hope some of you can help me with this.
    My Koi fish just spawned today and I did a nice job collecting the eggs using aquatic plants.
    Next step I seperated them from the parents' pond, put them in a connected pond to the parents' one with only water accessing it.
    The problem is, I have 5 little (4 inches) fish in the Hatching pond. 4 Comets and 1 small Koi. I put the plants with the eggs into the small fish's pond and after 3 hrs or so I noticed lots of the eggs were gone.
    My questions are:
    Do other fish eat Koi eggs?
    Does the small Koi eat them too?
    I can't get a real hatching tank or another pond so what should I do?
    And finally, do the small fish (Comets + Koi) eat the baby Koi after they are hatched?
    Any help will be extremely appreciated.

  • ladylotus
    15 years ago

    Greetings,

    Yes, fish eat eggs. I have not had my Koi or comets eat the babies, but they do eat the eggs. Can you place the eggs into a 5 gallon bucket with a small pump for oxygenation?

    Good Luck!
    ~Tj~

  • organic_doddy
    15 years ago

    Hi Tj,
    Thank you for your advice this is very helpful to me.
    Yesterday I took a bucket and put it right in the middle of the pond(to keep the conditions for the hatching) and I could save some of the eggs in this bucket.
    The other fish cannot access it and I think that's the point.
    As for the air pump, is it really necessary? I heard the eggs only need flowing water and no air pump or so.
    Cheers~

  • bebzz
    13 years ago

    Hi.. I'm from Indonesia..
    I have read some of the comment here..
    but there's some words tht i don't understand in here.

    About a week ago there 2 chasing 1 fish that had big stomach...
    and a day after the female look slimmer. i wonder what happen but this morning my mom told me tht there's some bubbles that flood on out fish pond. the color is a bit brown but when i try to touch it it's pop up... but the bubble is extremely A LOT :D
    then I try to put some bubble into the clay pot and give the small oxygen pump...

    I wonder, is that the real egg or the bubble was nothing..

  • eze5150
    13 years ago

    One day while cleaning my Koi pond I discovered approx. 8 tiny baby fish. I have no idea which one of my 4 Koi layed eggs. Also what bothers me is that I dont understand why the babies have no color like the other fish.What do Koi eggs look like?

  • coyoteblanc
    13 years ago

    Hi,I need your help to all.My koi had eggs some were clear some were white.I now realize that the white was fungus it spread very fast.I took some eggs and put them in a tank the rest I left in the pond they all are getting fungus.How do I prevent this? I dont want to use the wrong thing & kill the eggs.I might have another round of eggs coming.Also how did they get fungus,what caused it? Could the water be to warm?I had a floating island filled with all fungal eggs.May be the sun got to them?Please help coyote.

  • phancyphish2010
    13 years ago

    coyoteblanc.....the eggs that are turning white may simply not have been fertilized. This happens when the male fish do not fertilize all of the eggs. The sun should not have anything to do with it. I just missed a spawn but managed to pull one of my plants out of my pond and did save a few. Most turned white but I think I have a few hundred that just hatched out yesterday. I would suggest removing the white eggs and just keep an eye on the others. It only takes a few days for them to hatch. If you watch them closely, you will begin to see the "very small" fry form. You will be able to see 2 black eyes inside the egg. After this occurs, it will not be long and you will see the fry. Look closely though. They are tiny, (about the size of you bottom eyelash) and will attach themselves to the side of the tank that you have them in. While in this stage, they will eat on the egg sac for survival and once that is gone, will swim to the top and fill their air sacs. Now you can start feeding them liquid food. If it is too large, they will not be able to eat it and will starve. If you have a food processor, put some food in it and get it to a very fine texture. Add water to it and pore the liquid into the tank. Don't use to much at one time, as it can make your water bad. Feed them this about every 3 hours until they are large enough to eat it without the water. I had a spring spawn and got around 5000 fry from it. I have sold most of them but still have around 300 left. These are just ornamental Koi for my pond. I have since purchased 4 show quality Kohaku Koi. It will be at least another year before they are old enough to spawn and I can't wait. I use spawning mops in my pond when the time is right and usually can collect most of the eggs. I purchased a 60 gallon tub that I hatch them in with plenty of oxygen and (no filter) as it will suck the tiny fry into it and kill them. When they are about 1/2" long, I transfer them to a 650 gallon grow pond. You should have some eggs that are fertile and should hatch. Keep us updated and let us know.

  • alken_98_yahoo_com
    13 years ago

    hello! im a bigginer in breeding koi. yesterday the koi's eggs were hatched thousands n number, but this early morning i noticed as i search for fry and looking at some unhatched eggs i noticed that at bottom of the spawning tank than half of the population of fry were dead...can you please healp my it turned that way?

  • bulldinkie
    13 years ago

    I have lots of baby koi that are doing good I didnt harvest anything,The eggs couldbe frog eggs too.

  • albert_135   39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
    13 years ago

    Here are some pictures of koi eggs. The first one is macroscopic and the second near microscopic:






    RE: Koi Eggs

    • Posted by: jeffrey benson (camb@comcast.net) on Mon, Jun 6, 11 at 22:25

    Never had fish spawn until now. There is a white milky sudsy type film on the top of the pond. I have an upper and lower pond. All fish are in the lower pond none in the top. I was cleaning the pond and noticed at least 20 or more baby fry in the upper pond swimming all around. Tey had to be carried up there throuigh the pump in the lower pond and distributed. How else would they get up there.
    i was so excited. Babies at last. Neat that it happened.

    RE: Koi Eggs

    • Posted by: Jesse (Hmtonka2003@aol.com) on Wed, Jul 6, 11 at 14:31

    40 days ago today my koi spawned on their spawning mop's 30 made it they now range for .5 of an inch to 2 inches long. and are doing great. they are realy nice looking fish. my female is now fat agin. when would it be safe to try to hand spawn her??? i have only seen it done once befor. i live in NY and i realy would like to become a koi breeder

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  • camb_comcast_net
    12 years ago

    Never had fish spawn until now. There is a white milky sudsy type film on the top of the pond. I have an upper and lower pond. All fish are in the lower pond none in the top. I was cleaning the pond and noticed at least 20 or more baby fry in the upper pond swimming all around. Tey had to be carried up there throuigh the pump in the lower pond and distributed. How else would they get up there.
    i was so excited. Babies at last. Neat that it happened.

  • Hmtonka2003_aol_com
    12 years ago

    40 days ago today my koi spawned on their spawning mop's 30 made it they now range for .5 of an inch to 2 inches long. and are doing great. they are realy nice looking fish. my female is now fat agin. when would it be safe to try to hand spawn her??? i have only seen it done once befor. i live in NY and i realy would like to become a koi breeder

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