The Pond Digger Forums

Well, no matter how much research I do I often seem to miss the obvious.  I had built a small pond (homedepot special) and figured based on the size that I could have 3 butterfly koi.  One thing that I completely missed was that they multiply like gremlins.  I newer thought they would start reproducing at such a young age but apprently I have a male Comet and Yellow butterfly and one female yellow butterfly.

The first time I saw a baby it was the size of a Beta fish.  I thought someone was playing a joke on me.  I was so excited!  The following year I had 16 babies of all different sizes.  Some of them have a yellowish tint and some have an orange tint(but that may be just me wishing).

  After reading through your forum I realized how little I know about fish. I had never heard of the term Cull before and after reading that some mutts never show color like the adults I do not know what I should do with these fish. I am getting ready to install an 11x11 american pond this spring but would still like to keep the fish # down so that I can add some higher quality Koi.

Please take a look at my fish and tell me what you think.

OK, I'll rephrase my question. What do most of you do with your gray crossbreed fry? My new pond will be in the 1500-2000 gallon range and I asume that the breeding will only increase.

Thanks

Kevin

Kevin,

First things, first. Thanks for posting pictures and congratulations on your success so far. Your pond looks very nice.

Culling is certainly an important part of the breeding process. The gray crossbred fry will certainly never amount to anything special but will eat and create waste just like a beautiful fish.

Culling is hard for many people to grasp but indeed needs to be addressed. It is much easier to do when the fish are fry. Here are a couple of things to consider.

There are actually a great deal of people with ponds that don't have the money to stock their pond with fish, ie; local museums, schools, local zoos, seinor centers and much more. Consider donating you CULLS to a local place that have little to NO budget to purchase fish.

If you cull your fry before they are bigger than an inch you could offer the fish to a local pet store to use as feeder fish for larger tropical fish such as Oscars, Jack Depseys, Pikes and other large CICHLID varieties. It's always good to have a networking relationship with a local pet shop.

Even at 1" you will see interesting patterns and colors on your young fry. If you see anything interesting at 1" then you may consider growing the fish up for fun. Remember the more colorful the fish as a fry it will be more likely to fall prey and be eaten by the larger fish in your pond. You will see at least a hundred gray or black fry for every colorful fry!

Good Luck,

The Pond Digger

Thanks for the response. I've since bought serveral koi books on amazon and have a lot of reading to do. I never see the fry until end of the season (I typically bring the fish indoors in the winter). I'm thinking of donating my Male red and white comet to someone that has a goldfish pond to try to reduce the number of gray fry.

Remember gray color is the dominant gene that will be coming out in all fry that will be produced in your pond regardless, be it goldfish or koi!

Koi and goldfish are not a great mix on each other come breeding season. Koi generally are so much larger and in turn are rougher during spawning. Small goldies could really get pushed around and beat up pretty good.

Best of Luck,

The Pond Digger