My showa spawned last night. I had moved them to the 1800 gallon spawning pond a couple of weeks ago. Due to cool weather, I did not add the two spawning ropes and 4 plastic plants stuck in the rocks until night before last with a warm front expected with rain. Despite the actual weather being cooler than forecasted, we were very surprised that they spawned the night of May 9 with water 64 degrees F (18 C) at dusk and 63 degrees at 8:00 am as they were finishing up, with a strong thunderstorm moving through. I was concerned that the female might not lay many eggs since the water was cool, but looking at how much she slimmed up, she must have emptied them out pretty well. I returned the four to big pond at 1:00 pm after a 3 hour bath in 100 gal of 0.28% aeriated salt.
[I had bought more rope and more artificial plants for spawning material, but they spawned unexpectedly before I could add them to the pond. I also had a new 17” ginrin showa male in quarantine that I had considered adding to the mix if they waited long enough, but that did not happen either.]
Here is a photo taken shortly after the spawning. The slimmed down Doitsu (leather) female (22”) is on the left. I've only had her a few months, and I am not sure of her age. The males are fully scaled. The reddest one in the lower right is a seven-year-old male (24"). The 26" chunky male above him is eleven years old. The 21" kin showa male in the top right is three years old. More info and photos to follow ... Matt