Excess koi fry.........

What are all you people doing with your excess koi fry? I'm out of options.
I've already traded or sold around 500 this spring and still have 3
yearlings and about 150 smaller fry (2 to 3" size). I can't bring myself
to destroy all these prefectly healthy pretty young fish.
--

RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

Hard as it may be, its a part of fish keeping. The hatchery where I
bought my lopad of koi at to stock my new pond literally had heaps of
them that were being culled out and simply tossed into tub, to be
ground into fish meal or compost. If yur realy wanting to do the fish
per se a lot of good with only the best specimens...its worth
investing in a book on grading them......and hold yourself strictly
to the books guidelines.....Odds are even if yur grading out fry form
a Grand champ breeding yuo'll end up with very very few keepers and
tons of *******. I know its hard to do, as we usually always find
something unique and special in each fish.....that we use to justify
keeping it.

Bout all I can suggest is grab a shovel and pick and start digging yet
another pond or two..........Get on Koiphen and put an ad for them in
their classifieds page.....Do the same on Koishack........If they are
not too big, and really size does not mean a whole lot in shipping
anyhow its just biugger bags and boxes, offer free fish for price of
shipping. Its pretty easy to ship them......

Lots of luck.....So far I am fine with my fish (mainly my older fish
thatsi n the newer pond) as I have a king fisher and a few warmouths
that help with spawns.....I do however net what I can and toss em in a
aquatic fence enclosure along with other fish I catch and decide to
get rid of, and run an ad for free fish at the Petshops in town on
their bulletin boards (Petco andPetsmart) here both have bulletin
boards for folks to advertise pets fish and supplies etc......

In town we have 4 parks that have water features with koi in them, and
we also have thelocal zoo, who has a huge old quarry pit, that is used
as a place for the swans and other aquatic brds to nest on. Its not
really a part of the zoo exhibit, and its probably 6 plus acres in
size and really realy deep. They also pull water out of it for in the
zoo exhibits. They will take unwanted ornamental fsh and put them in
that quarry resivoir. Even the local golf courses here put koi into
some of their water traps......

Regards




On Mon, 2 Jul 2007 13:54:34 -0500, "Reel McKoi"
wrote:

What are all you people doing with your excess koi fry? I'm out of options.
I've already traded or sold around 500 this spring and still have 3
yearlings and about 150 smaller fry (2 to 3" size). I can't bring myself
to destroy all these prefectly healthy pretty young fish.

"A. Paul Ing" wrote in message
...
Hard as it may be, its a part of fish keeping. The hatchery where I
bought my lopad of koi at to stock my new pond literally had heaps of
them that were being culled out and simply tossed into tub, to be
ground into fish meal or compost. If yur realy wanting to do the fish
per se a lot of good with only the best specimens...its worth
investing in a book on grading them......and hold yourself strictly
to the books guidelines.....Odds are even if yur grading out fry form
a Grand champ breeding yuo'll end up with very very few keepers and
tons of *******. I know its hard to do, as we usually always find
something unique and special in each fish.....that we use to justify
keeping it.

These are all pet quality, colorful and healthy - mostly butterfly koi. All
those with odd shapes, poor color or deformities were culled out early in
the spring. I'm sure they all became food for the local preditors by now.
Another problem is with the severe drought these farm ponds and drainage
ponds are drying up. One pond I usually release fish into for duckweed and
mosquito control is down to a few inches and is only a few feet across.
I've never seen it so low.


Bout all I can suggest is grab a shovel and pick and start digging yet
another pond or two..........Get on Koiphen and put an ad for them in
their classifieds page.....Do the same on Koishack........If they are
not too big, and really size does not mean a whole lot in shipping
anyhow its just biugger bags and boxes, offer free fish for price of
shipping. Its pretty easy to ship them......

Shipping is out. I went that route with pond plants and it wasn't worth the
effort. I'm too far from the airport and have no shipping bags, oxygen or
insulated boxes. When I sell them locally they're already gasping at the
surface by the time I get to Nashville. We now deliver them in an open tub
with a battery powered aerator from Wally World, per tub.


Lots of luck.....So far I am fine with my fish (mainly my older fish
thatsi n the newer pond) as I have a king fisher and a few warmouths
that help with spawns.....I do however net what I can and toss em in a
aquatic fence enclosure along with other fish I catch and decide to
get rid of, and run an ad for free fish at the Petshops in town on
their bulletin boards (Petco andPetsmart) here both have bulletin
boards for folks to advertise pets fish and supplies etc......

In town we have 4 parks that have water features with koi in them, and
we also have thelocal zoo, who has a huge old quarry pit, that is used
as a place for the swans and other aquatic brds to nest on. Its not
really a part of the zoo exhibit, and its probably 6 plus acres in
size and really realy deep. They also pull water out of it for in the
zoo exhibits. They will take unwanted ornamental fsh and put them in
that quarry resivoir. Even the local golf courses here put koi into
some of their water traps......

You gave me a few ideas. Thanks.


--

RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö