I know I said it was boring.......

.....but I didn't mean I wasn't going to help!

I mentioned earlier in the week that the eggs from last weekend's spawnings had gone out to the mud ponds to hatch - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/421.

Yesterday afternoon Saito san had dropped the sides of the nets below water level to allow the newly hatched fry to swim free into the mud pond.

The exception to this was the eggs that had been laid by this Showa (under anaesthetic) which had been kept in a holding net in the Koi house to hatch, the reason, they'd need to be sorted through so only the kuroko, the black fry, were released to the pond.

Last night I confirmed with Saito san, as I'd suspected, that kuroko selection would start today.  As such I set my alarm for 7am to be up and ready for an earlyish start.

When I arrived at the Shintaro house Hiromi san and Saito san were already underway.  The selected kuroko go down the airline by suction and into the green tube from which they exit into the bowl. 

Saito san said to me, 'you want to try?'

Of course, that was why I was there.  However, it seems that at some point in my reply, in which I did exclaim it a boring job, the confirmation that I was there to help seemingly got lost.  I sat watching and Saito san showed no sign of stopping to get me 'set up'.

Figuring something must be wrong I asked Saito san whether he didn't want my help.  It transpired that he'd taken my statement that it was a boring job to mean that I wasn't interested in helping!  Having cleared that up I set about 5 and a half hours of kuroko selection, it was rather surprising how quickly the hours passed by to be honest.  During the afternoon we were joined by Shousuke Saito and also Hiromi san's father.

Sifting through what amounts to many 10's of thousands of fry just a few mm's long, only selecting the black ones, makes you realise how special every high quality jumbo Showa in existence really is.

At 5.30pm it was time to call it a day, the Koi house still contains many more 10's of thousands to sort through. 

We headed out to Kawaguchi where these Showa kego were to be released into 2 mud ponds, Saito san estimating that there was maybe 20,000 going into each pond.  As the picture below was taken he was asking for the patterns he hopes to see.

These fry will next be seen in close up at the end of July.  As for tomorrow, it's back for more kuroko selection.