The time it takes your koi fry to hatch from their eggs depends primarily on the temperature of the water. The colder it is, the longer it takes to hatch and vice versa. Generally, at a temperature of between 68 to 71 degrees Fahrenheit, the eggs should hatch in 3 to 4 days. The minimum temperature for koi eggs to hatch is about 63 degrees in which case it would take them 5 or 6 days to hatch. So keep your water at an optimum temperature and well aerated and you will see the eggs start to develop and eventually hatch.
Once the fries have hatched out of the eggs, you should remove the unfertilized eggs, leaving the koi fries by themselves in your spawning tank. Do not feed them for 3 to 4 days after hatching because their mouths have not developed yet so food within this time will only cause the water to become murky. It is important to keep the water well aerated with a pump because the koi fries' respiratory system has not fully developed so they need lots of oxygen.
After the third or fourth day, you can feed your koi fry some food. You have various options. You can feed them hard boiled eggs or better yet, get some food from the lake which wild koi fry would eat. For example, you can feed them with infusoria (a type of pond algae) or daphnia (a type of crustacean found in ponds). As the koi fries grow, you can feed them with brine shrimp and eventually koi pellets. But make sure the size of the pellets is not too large for the koi fries to eat. But do not feed the fries artificial food until they are at least 6 weeks old.
At around 4 weeks of age, it is time to cull the koi fries as you would likely have hundreds if not thousands of them. The ones to cull would be those with unwanted characteristics like deformities. And if you are trying to breed a certain color or variety of koi, you should cull those that do not display the colors or characteristics of the koi variety that you are trying to breed.
Once you have a number of koi fry that you are comfortable with, you can grow them to become wonderful additions to your koi collection.
Finding the best information about proper koi keeping and koi ponds can be overwhelming at times.
One of the best places we found online for the straight facts on koi keeping and where you can get a FREE 10-part mini course on 'How to Keep Koi Tips and Tricks' is KeepKoi Resources.
To find out more about how to grow koi fry, visit How to Look After Koi Fry.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_H._Andrews
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