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    Thread: Feeding koi fry

    1. #1
      whodat is offline Member
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      Feeding koi fry

      First time I am having koi fry.

      I setup a 75 gallon rubber maid stock tank in advance with some string algae and floating water cress from the main pond. Then a week later I put koi fry that were a few days old in the stock tank. I initially fed them some hard boiled yellow egg yolk. Then I switched to Hikari first bites.

      I have between 100 and 200 koi fry in the 75 gallon tank. They seem to be always eating algae or maybe zooplankton or infusoria in the water. I'm starting to get a healthy green growth along the sides of the tank.

      I am now mixing some Hikari first bites into a cup of water and with a spoon putting drops of the water/first bites around the tank so the fry can find the food. Mostly the fry ignore the food and nipple away at the string algae.

      This is very different behavior from the parents who are extremely competitive for food when being fed.

      Should I stop feeding the koi fry and just let them eat algae/zooplankton?

      Any comments or thoughts would be appreciated.Name:  koifry.jpg
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      Last edited by whodat; 06-26-2019 at 10:20 PM. Reason: add photo

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    2. #2
      Matt24's Avatar
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      Congratulations on the fry whodat. Sounds like you have lots of food types. So they have their choice.

      Do you have filtration? Or are you doing regular water changes to control ammonia? One of the main things with feeding at this stage is not to feed much more than the filtration can handle, and get ammonia which can harm the fry. A binder like Ammo-Lock or Fritz ACCR can also help.

      If it does not look like they are eating much of what you put in, you might want to back off on the amounts.

    3. #3
      whodat is offline Member
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      Good question about filtration. Since I don't want to suck the fry through filtration, at this point I am doing water changes. Also good point about backing off on the amounts if they don't eat it. I was manually removing some of the larger uneated pieces of egg yolk on the bottom of the tank. Then I switched to the first bites food which I stir in a cup of water before feeding.

    4. #4
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      Quote Originally Posted by whodat View Post
      Good question about filtration. Since I don't want to suck the fry through filtration, at this point I am doing water changes.
      There are certainly different ways of cleaning the water. I like to keep a mature filter running. This year after the eggs were laid, I was concerned that my 500 GPH pump would be too powerful and suck up all the fry from about 400 gallons in the tub. So I made two changes. I replaced the pump with a 300 GPH pump, a 40% reduction in power, and at a head height of about 2 feet, it pumps 240 GPH. I also set up a screen for the pump by first putting the small pump in a mesh bag. Then I used two plant baskets to make a cage for that, which I wrapped in a double layer of cheese cloth. The idea being that even though the cheese cloth would decompose in a few days, by then the fry would be of a safe size. And it worked. After 26 days, I've got hundred of fry that can easily avoid the pump.

      This is only one of the ways to screen a pump. Also, some breeders set up flow-through systems where the water from their main pond flows though the tub. I have not tried that. I imagine you have to have the screen just right or the fry will wash down into the main pond or if the screen gets clogged, it may cause an overflow of the tub.

    5. #5
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      I did the opposite of Matt, In my experiment, I increased the size of my submersible mag pump from 600 gph to 900 gph in my 300 gallon tank and made the return water produce air bubbles with a tiny ventril hole on top and disperse on the bottom in the front of the tank. The water is calm from the middle to back end. The fry avoid the turbulent water and settle on the sides and bottom where it is calm. I also installed two one inch pvc drain pipes drilled with small holes to accommodate two Hydra-pro #5 sponge filters each rated for 450 gph. They exit the back end of the tank and go into a 33 gal rubbermaid trash bin filled with bio media seeded with Microlift gel. This is where the 900 gph mag pump sits. Two 90 degree pvc couplings angled slightly up circulates the water in the trash bin. I ended up putting 3 of my air stones on the top part of the trash bin filter, but left one in the front of the tank. This gave them a calm place to rest.

      After one month, I placed a 45 degree coupling on the return, so the water flows down the middle and pushes the fry poop to the sponge filter. In the evening I place two air stones about 6 inches away from the sponge filter on both sides. This lifts the fry poop off the bottom on to the sponge filters. The bottom of the tank is completely clean in the am as I take out the air stones for the day and clean the sponge filters. I have another 600 gph pump resting idol on the top part of the trash bin filter, I use this to do 10% daily water changes. Zero fry got sucked in. I went through three or four spawns testing different set ups and ideas, this is the best system I have come up with. The size of the pump can be reduced to 300 or 600 gph depending on the load.

      For 100 fry you can get by with regular air type sponge filters.

      This type of pre filter also works with fry, but you still need a barrel full of bio media as this type of filter needs to be cleaned often. They sell various sizes at Home Depot. The tiny fry won't get sucked in: https://www.amazon.com/Beckett-Corpo...s%2C266&sr=8-6
      Last edited by Roger; 06-26-2019 at 04:32 AM.

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