Technical Koi Information

Let us get technical about breeding koi! Koi was first identified in Japan, to be a multi colored fish in the carp ethnicity. Its special or most dominant feature is in its outer skins vibrant colored spots that give impression of decorated fish. And the name Koi stands for friendship in Japan and may be it is the reason for most of Japanese people to cultivate koi around their household. In Japan koi stands for friendship and love!

With dates back to eighteenth century, koi breeding got the popularity in Japan. Later this fish was spread thru out the world and except the Polar Regions, koi fishes are every where. This fish is adored by all the civilizations around the world. Their huge growth rates have worked as a boon for any koi breeder, economically and socially. The huge growth potential from single parenting koi fish is something a trend that took away the world in the beginning of last century. Even, there are records that too much koi fishes have vastly affected major water ways in different countries. There growth rate holds the economic prospect for any breeder.

Though the breeding started when some ancient farmers noticed the stunning colors in their rice fields, now they are more or less staying in the ponds or tanks. Those farmers took few of them, got some taste and start to think about cultivating them. They have later identified ways to manipulate the colors on these koi fishes. Especially the Kohaku, Sanke, Showa, Tancho, Asagi, Shushi, Bekko, Goshiki, Ogon, Koromo, Butterfly Koi and Ghost Koi are greatly praised round the globe. Their coloring, patterns, scaling are different and distinguishable to each other.

The reproduction process of koi fish is similar to that of other fishes. The female koi fish hatches numerous numbers of eggs, and then it becomes the duty of male koi fish to fertilize them. The female koi fish lays eggs in numbers of hundred thousands. So it is a crowd going to fill any pond likely in few months time. Baby koi fishes are referred as fry. When these hatched eggs are cultivated, fertilized and nurtured, hundred and thousands of fries fill the pond or incubating tanks. This is the reason why some water ways got blocked for koi fish. Think of a two generation cycles from single parenting koi fish.

You get a minimum of hundred thousand koi fishes in few months. Then these hundred thousands fishes will lay eggs reaching their maturity to hundred thousand times to their number. Could you figure out the number? I could not. What I can say, a pond filled with fishes instead of water! This spiraling and spawning of koi fish holds the economic prospect of the koi breeder.

It is only the aqua culturist or koi fish breeder specialist can perfectly nurture the fries. And they need to have patience to do this type tedious job. They can understand which parenting fish to use, how to nurture the fries to get desired colored koi. The main technical aspect of koi breeding depends on the reducing defection rate. Most of the laid eggs do not produce healthy and sound offspring. It is the breeders’ task to cull these defective offspring thru different stages and controlled environment. As not all the offspring pass thru the culling process, lots of fries are used as fish food for other fishes. Only the survived koi that are good in size, shape and color are sold.