Friday night action......
Posted 29 May 2009 - 19:54 by Mark Gardner
......I hope!
I mentioned a few weeks ago Torazo's new female oyagoi http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/365.
As I drove past the Koi house yesterday evening in which it's been residing since her arrival I noticed the tell tale sign of a spawning net set up in there. I popped my head in the door but she was still swimming around her pond and the net empty.
As I drove past again this evening I again popped my head in, she was now swimming around accompanied by a male Koi which, judging from the size of the female at 91cm, is probably somewhere around 67cm. As you can see, the difference in volume is simply enormous.
I found Tsuyoshi san, his wife, staff and also the wife of Hiroi Seiji sheltering from the sun in the garage area beneath their house sorting through Showa kego that had been spawned last Friday, selecting only the black ones to keep. I declined Tsuyoshi san's invitiation to join in. Of all the excitement of breeding Showa this must be the most mundane part by a long way. They'd been at it since 8am, it was now 5pm.
Tsuyoshi san said, 'oh we put big Kohaku with a male this morning.' I confessed that that was where I'd just come from.
The male Koi it transpired was bred by Murata Nishikigoi in Uonuma. Murata Kohaku have very good pedigree, one taking the 1998 All Japan Show. Co-incidentally that particular Koi passed through Torazo's hands, he purchased it as a 2 year old which, I believe I'm right in saying was then sold to Hiroi Seiji who subsequently sold it to Uonoma Nishikigoi Centre. At the time it took GC it was owned by the late famous hobbyist Ryo Kamiya. I believe I'm also correct in saying that, after his death, it nearly went to the UK. Murata also took a Kokugyo prize at the 2008 All Japan and won the Uonuma Show in 2008.
After speaking to Tsuyoshi san I went back and took the above pictures and also some video. The male seemed to be taking quite a bit of interest in the female. I'll be heading back in the early hours to see how things are progressing although Tsuyoshi san advises when a female has never spawned before it often takes 2 nights before she starts to release eggs.
Time will tell.
Nice to see the kohaku pairing would be intresseting to see the outcome of this pairing is this going to be a natural spawning or not?? If i'm right he's is trying to geth the body and size of the female with the special patterns of Murata?
I have question for the breeder: what does he do with hetch fry do they move them directly to a fry mudpond?? or to they grow them up inside for a while? so yes what do they feed them???
Sorry for the delay in answering your questions.
Firstly, I think it was just a case of mixing quality female with quality proven male. Very few aspects of pattern are hereditary, in fact my understanding is that it's the negative ones that are normally avoided. When I spoke to breeders about purchasing some oyagoi last year the common theme was 'don't pay for pattern'.
These Koi were actually spawned artificially in the end, as can be seen on the NTV 2009 video.
With regards to the fry, I'll be making a new post updating shortly.
Well, just arrived home, 5.30am.
Off to bed, will update later today with details.