Still Culling...
We've finished up breeding for the year, artificial spawning was finished a while ago, and now we're done natural spawning too. All of the Oyagoi have been moved out of Sanbusho & Muikaichi, released out into the mud ponds. Most of the breeding tools & supplies have been taken down and put away until next year.
Today we finished up the last of the black fry culling on the last two showas bred. Other than that we have been starting the second cull on some ponds, Kohaku & Sanke so far. It is starting to get very interesting because you can make out patterns on the fish really well. Along with starting the second cull we have been starting the first cull on ponds that contain fish that were spawned later.
Tomorrow I'm flying back to Minnesota for the first koi show put on by the Upper Midwest Koi Club. You can read more info about it at: www.umkoiclub.org
Friday, July 27, 2007
Devin's Pond
I had a day off so I decided to cull my pond for a second time. I had Marudo help me pull the seine net because my usual partner in crime, Shinji, was busy. I already learned how to cull showa so I culled by myself. That way I could get a good look at all my koi.
We pulled the pond twice to make sure that we got all the koi. I couldn't believe how big they've grown since the first cull, they were about 6 - 7 cm in length. For the most part I could make out the patterns really good on the koi, the shiroji & beni have emerged nicely. In all it took me about 5 hours to cull by myself.
This time I counted how many fish I culled down to, I released around 350 fish. I didn't count how many I culled out though, but from the start I released about 10,000 black fry into my pond. I didn't have time during the first cull to count how many I kept. I'm going to cull my pond one more time before harvesting in the fall, Marudo thinks I'll probably cull down to about 120 fish.
Overall I am very pleased with how my koi are turning out. Everyone at Marudo koi farm has their own pond for growing koi out, so in the fall we are going to compare and see who raised the best fish. I can't wait for fall to come.
We pulled the pond twice to make sure that we got all the koi. I couldn't believe how big they've grown since the first cull, they were about 6 - 7 cm in length. For the most part I could make out the patterns really good on the koi, the shiroji & beni have emerged nicely. In all it took me about 5 hours to cull by myself.
This time I counted how many fish I culled down to, I released around 350 fish. I didn't count how many I culled out though, but from the start I released about 10,000 black fry into my pond. I didn't have time during the first cull to count how many I kept. I'm going to cull my pond one more time before harvesting in the fall, Marudo thinks I'll probably cull down to about 120 fish.
Overall I am very pleased with how my koi are turning out. Everyone at Marudo koi farm has their own pond for growing koi out, so in the fall we are going to compare and see who raised the best fish. I can't wait for fall to come.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Earthquake, My Story Part 2
7-17-07 Today I called the station to see if train service was running between Niigata and Nagaoka, it was, so I to go home. After lunch I headed the station on got on the first of 3 trains I had to take to get back to Nagaoka. In reality Yamagata is very close, but there is no direct route to get there (by car or train). All of the trains were running smoothly & on time, until I got to Niigata.
At Niigata all of the time tables were messed up, showing trains coming in that were from 2 hours before. I asked one of the station workers what time the next train was leaving. He didn't know, but he thought the train on track 13 would be leaving first. So through the sea of confused Japanese people I made my way to platform 13. I boarded the train and searched a couple cars for an open seat before realizing the train was packed. I decided the just stand in the hallway of the train since the ride from Niigata to Nagaoka is only about 20 mins. I watched as dozens of people frantically searched for an open seat, only to come up empty handed.
Occasionally anoucements would come saying when the train was going to leave, but they kept changing. Nobody really knew what was going on or why we were sitting at the platform for so long. Later I found out it was because a bolt in the concrete raiser shook loose during the earthquake. In all it took me about 6 hours to get home, when it usually only takes about 3 hours.
Once I got home I saw for myself that everybody was okay. The Nagaoka and Ojiya areas did not really suffer any damage from the quake, but Kashiwazaki got hit hard. I think the fire at the power plant was an electrical fire. Some radio active water spilled into the ocean during the earthquake. It is unsure how much and it is still under investigation right now.
7-22-07 The Shinkokai has been bringing water to Kashiwazaki for the victims at shelters for none drinking purposes. The earthquake destroyed the cities water system, and safe drinking water was already brought in. But there isn't enough water for people to do laundry, ect. So the Shinkokai set up show tanks at the shelters & truckes in new water about everyday.
On the 22nd I volunteered to go. It was amazing to see the damage in person as compared to on TV. The road looked like waves because how it buckled, the manhole covers were all push up and looked like gopher mounds in the road. Mmany garages & storage houses fell in the quake, some houses collapsed too. A lot of structures were shaken almost to the point of falling, they will need to be taken down. Also, a lot of houses had some kind of decorative stone fence or gate, but in the earthquake they all tumbled down.
At Niigata all of the time tables were messed up, showing trains coming in that were from 2 hours before. I asked one of the station workers what time the next train was leaving. He didn't know, but he thought the train on track 13 would be leaving first. So through the sea of confused Japanese people I made my way to platform 13. I boarded the train and searched a couple cars for an open seat before realizing the train was packed. I decided the just stand in the hallway of the train since the ride from Niigata to Nagaoka is only about 20 mins. I watched as dozens of people frantically searched for an open seat, only to come up empty handed.
Occasionally anoucements would come saying when the train was going to leave, but they kept changing. Nobody really knew what was going on or why we were sitting at the platform for so long. Later I found out it was because a bolt in the concrete raiser shook loose during the earthquake. In all it took me about 6 hours to get home, when it usually only takes about 3 hours.
Once I got home I saw for myself that everybody was okay. The Nagaoka and Ojiya areas did not really suffer any damage from the quake, but Kashiwazaki got hit hard. I think the fire at the power plant was an electrical fire. Some radio active water spilled into the ocean during the earthquake. It is unsure how much and it is still under investigation right now.
7-22-07 The Shinkokai has been bringing water to Kashiwazaki for the victims at shelters for none drinking purposes. The earthquake destroyed the cities water system, and safe drinking water was already brought in. But there isn't enough water for people to do laundry, ect. So the Shinkokai set up show tanks at the shelters & truckes in new water about everyday.
On the 22nd I volunteered to go. It was amazing to see the damage in person as compared to on TV. The road looked like waves because how it buckled, the manhole covers were all push up and looked like gopher mounds in the road. Mmany garages & storage houses fell in the quake, some houses collapsed too. A lot of structures were shaken almost to the point of falling, they will need to be taken down. Also, a lot of houses had some kind of decorative stone fence or gate, but in the earthquake they all tumbled down.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Earthquake, My Story Part 1
7-16-07 I spend the weekend up at my friend's house in Yamagata and I was supposed to return home on the 16th. But an earthquake struck Niigata and parts of Nagano at 10:13 a.m. The earthquake was very small in Yamagata, only about a magnitude 3, but in Niigata the magnitude was 6.8 at the strongest, in the Kashiwasaki area (a coastal region in Niigata pref.). And about a 6.1 magnitude in the Ojiya and Nagaoka areas (where I live).
The first thing I did after seeing that Niigata was hit hard again on the news was to try and call Marudo on the phone. But it was worthless, the phone lines were either jammed or taken out by the quake. I was really worried because Kashiwasaki has a Nuclear Power Plant, and sure enough it got damage by the quake. They had a live feed from a traffic camera showing black smoke comming from the plant on TV. Because the camera was a fixed, we couldn't tell where the fire was comming from. So we were really worried that the earthquake caused a meltdown or something.
I kept trying to call every hour, but it wouldn't go through. Finally around 3:00 p.m., I got through to the grandfather. He told me everybody was okay, but nobody was around because they all went out to go check the ponds.
I saw on the news that train service had been suspended, and because we didn't know what was happening at the Kashiwasaki Nuclear Plant, my friend said it would be fine for me to stay with his family as long as I need too. I really wanted to return home to see if everybody was okay, but there was no way for me to get back. So I stayed another night in Yamagata...
The first thing I did after seeing that Niigata was hit hard again on the news was to try and call Marudo on the phone. But it was worthless, the phone lines were either jammed or taken out by the quake. I was really worried because Kashiwasaki has a Nuclear Power Plant, and sure enough it got damage by the quake. They had a live feed from a traffic camera showing black smoke comming from the plant on TV. Because the camera was a fixed, we couldn't tell where the fire was comming from. So we were really worried that the earthquake caused a meltdown or something.
I kept trying to call every hour, but it wouldn't go through. Finally around 3:00 p.m., I got through to the grandfather. He told me everybody was okay, but nobody was around because they all went out to go check the ponds.
I saw on the news that train service had been suspended, and because we didn't know what was happening at the Kashiwasaki Nuclear Plant, my friend said it would be fine for me to stay with his family as long as I need too. I really wanted to return home to see if everybody was okay, but there was no way for me to get back. So I stayed another night in Yamagata...
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Niigata was struck by another earthquake, it looks like everybody in the Ojiya & Nagaoka areas are okay. The coastal area was hit pretty hard though. I'll type more about the earthquake later, for now you can read about it here.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Shinji (Marudo's younger brother) & I had the day off together, he agreed to help me seine my pond so I could cull it. My fish were about 3 - 4 cm in length, big enough to start to be able to make out a pattern on them, so I decided to do a quick culling. I only culled out the kohaku, all black koi, plus anything that had any deformities and any koi that had dropsy. I have yet to learn how to cull showa, so I just culled out the obvious.
Things I accomplished while culling:
I cleaned most of the algae out of my pond, it was kinda starting to take over.
I got rid of all the uneeded koi, kohaku, aka muji, ect. So now there is more room and less compition for the developing showa to grow.
I think I eradicated all the fish with drospy from my pond, not that it is contagious though, just nice to have it out.
Thats about it, I'm going to visit some friends out of town, there should be a new post maybe on Tuesday next week.
Things I accomplished while culling:
I cleaned most of the algae out of my pond, it was kinda starting to take over.
I got rid of all the uneeded koi, kohaku, aka muji, ect. So now there is more room and less compition for the developing showa to grow.
I think I eradicated all the fish with drospy from my pond, not that it is contagious though, just nice to have it out.
Thats about it, I'm going to visit some friends out of town, there should be a new post maybe on Tuesday next week.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I noticed my some of my fish looked funny while I was doing kanri at my pond on morning. I asked Toshi to take a look at my fish, so he went during lunch break. He came back with some bad news, he told me some of my fish contracted matsukasa. An internal bacterial infection, dropsy in english. It was probably brought on by too much food and poor water quality, I think the water quality took a turn for the worse during the heavy rains that caused a small landslide into my pond. The soil never really settle in the water collum because of repeated heavy rains we had, and with the water temperature dropping from the cool rain, it made my fish more susceptible to disease.
Toshi recommended to raise the pH and stop feeding for a couple days, and the other fish shouldn't get infected. I followed his recommendation and no other fish came down with matsukasa, he said I was lucky to catch it early. It could have been devastating otherwise.
Toshi recommended to raise the pH and stop feeding for a couple days, and the other fish shouldn't get infected. I followed his recommendation and no other fish came down with matsukasa, he said I was lucky to catch it early. It could have been devastating otherwise.
Culling.
We started culling sanke on the 4th of this month. All of the fry ponds on Myoken mountain (one of our main four fry pond areas) contain sanke fry. We've just finished culling at Myoken, so we moved to Sekihara to start culling kohaku fry.
Sanke fry look a lot like showa, when we are culling we look for deformities and a pattern. If the fry have any deformities we cull them out. When looking for a pattern we make sure that the fry has all three colors, which can be difficult depending on how developed the fry is. If the fry is under developed it is hard to make out the differance between the shiroji & hi plate, especially if it is heavy with sumi.
Kohaku are much easier to cull in regards to sanke, the differance between the shiroji & hi is much easier to see since you are not trying to look through sumi. Again we cull out any deformities, missing an eye, bend spine, missing fin(s), and deformed heads, ect. Mostly just looking for a classic kohaku patterns, some very easy to pick out if the shiroji is already developed. On others that are under developed we look for areas that look weak that could be a possible break in the hi plate if the shiroji hasn't fully emerged.
Before culling we need to seine the ponds to catch the fish. So every morning 4 of us get up early and seine the pond before the others (including the Obasan Culling Team, OCT for short) arrive for culling. Pulling the seine net is a slow process and kind of an aquired skill. Do it wrong and you could accidently let the fry out, or worse, get them tangled in the net. Overall culling is a slow repetative job, but the funny (read perverted, this is Japan you know, its amazing what a grandmother will ask you) conversations we have while culling sure make the day go by faster.
We started culling sanke on the 4th of this month. All of the fry ponds on Myoken mountain (one of our main four fry pond areas) contain sanke fry. We've just finished culling at Myoken, so we moved to Sekihara to start culling kohaku fry.
Sanke fry look a lot like showa, when we are culling we look for deformities and a pattern. If the fry have any deformities we cull them out. When looking for a pattern we make sure that the fry has all three colors, which can be difficult depending on how developed the fry is. If the fry is under developed it is hard to make out the differance between the shiroji & hi plate, especially if it is heavy with sumi.
Kohaku are much easier to cull in regards to sanke, the differance between the shiroji & hi is much easier to see since you are not trying to look through sumi. Again we cull out any deformities, missing an eye, bend spine, missing fin(s), and deformed heads, ect. Mostly just looking for a classic kohaku patterns, some very easy to pick out if the shiroji is already developed. On others that are under developed we look for areas that look weak that could be a possible break in the hi plate if the shiroji hasn't fully emerged.
Before culling we need to seine the ponds to catch the fish. So every morning 4 of us get up early and seine the pond before the others (including the Obasan Culling Team, OCT for short) arrive for culling. Pulling the seine net is a slow process and kind of an aquired skill. Do it wrong and you could accidently let the fry out, or worse, get them tangled in the net. Overall culling is a slow repetative job, but the funny (read perverted, this is Japan you know, its amazing what a grandmother will ask you) conversations we have while culling sure make the day go by faster.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
I found the source and reason why there was a land slide into my pond, and fixed it!
It was raining very hard and I happened to be at my pond doing kanri at the time. I noticed that water was starting to gush down from above, in a matter of a couple minutes it was coming down very hard in 3 places like waterfalls. I quickly lowered the overflow pipe to help keep up with the incoming water. Then I ran up the hill to see where the water was coming from.
There is a drainage channel above my pond for rain, but it was clogged full of sticks, ceder needles and over grown with weeds. With all the debris in the channel, it was causing the water to overflow down into my pond when it would rain heavy. I quickly cleared out as much of the channel as I could with my hands, and stopped the water from overflowing.
In the afternoon I headed back to my pond with a brush cutter & shovel. I cleared out all of the brush around the drainage channel that was catching debris and clogging it up. Next I used the shovel to widen out narrow areas to prevent it from happening again in the future. Hopefully I've fixed my rain problem, the only good thing about the rain this years is that it has solved the water problem from the lack of snow this winter. Most of the mud ponds are topped off, if not very close to being full.
It was raining very hard and I happened to be at my pond doing kanri at the time. I noticed that water was starting to gush down from above, in a matter of a couple minutes it was coming down very hard in 3 places like waterfalls. I quickly lowered the overflow pipe to help keep up with the incoming water. Then I ran up the hill to see where the water was coming from.
There is a drainage channel above my pond for rain, but it was clogged full of sticks, ceder needles and over grown with weeds. With all the debris in the channel, it was causing the water to overflow down into my pond when it would rain heavy. I quickly cleared out as much of the channel as I could with my hands, and stopped the water from overflowing.
In the afternoon I headed back to my pond with a brush cutter & shovel. I cleared out all of the brush around the drainage channel that was catching debris and clogging it up. Next I used the shovel to widen out narrow areas to prevent it from happening again in the future. Hopefully I've fixed my rain problem, the only good thing about the rain this years is that it has solved the water problem from the lack of snow this winter. Most of the mud ponds are topped off, if not very close to being full.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Originally posted March 21 2007-
"The other day I saw a really funny commercial on TV, only that it wasn't meant to be funny. I think it was a commercial for cereal, but in it was a mother serving her son breakfast. And on the kids shirt it said "I Love M.I.L.F.s!". The kids mom was pretty hot too, how ironic is that?"
Tonight while I was watching horrible Japanese TV, its not like I have a better choice, its either watch it or get beat up by two little kids. Plus, the kids over here don't fight fair, so I just put up with the crappy TV programs, which the kids love for some reason. I don't know why, does it even have any entertainment value?
Anyways, tonight the M.I.L.F. shirt commercial was topped! How can you top the M.I.L.F. shirt you might ask? Well, there was a little girl (maybe about 10-12) wearing a shirt that said (I kid you not) "What's the Big Fucking Deal?", printed in bold black letters on a pink shirt. I couldn't believe it.
The girl wearing the shirt was a host on this boring kids show where they invade viewers houses and do crappy magic tricks, lame games, & sing horrible renditions of Happy Birthday. The show is basically all kids interviewing kids while they are being controlled by a bunch of kids & two adults dressed up like gothic elfs (I know, WTF? kids show w/ gothic elfs?) inside a digital world.
Some of their crappy magic tricks include pulling a banana out of a top hat that has been sitting on a table the whole time without showing the viewers the inside of the hat first. I know the show is targeted for kids, but, I mean, how dumb can kids be? You'd think they could make theirs tricks a little more complicated than just pulling a banana out of a hat.
One of the dumb games I saw on this show was, one kid throws a paper airplane from one end of the room to the other end where there is another kid with a net trying to catch the plane. While there are about 3 others with fans trying to prevent the one kid from catching the paper airplane. The game is not so bad, but the fact that the kids playing are decked out in full body armor with helmets seems a little odd. Can you even get hurt from trying to catch a paper airplane?
I'm not even going to go into how bad the ear wrenching Happy Birthday singing was, but that is what the "Fuck" shirt girl was doing on the show.
"The other day I saw a really funny commercial on TV, only that it wasn't meant to be funny. I think it was a commercial for cereal, but in it was a mother serving her son breakfast. And on the kids shirt it said "I Love M.I.L.F.s!". The kids mom was pretty hot too, how ironic is that?"
Tonight while I was watching horrible Japanese TV, its not like I have a better choice, its either watch it or get beat up by two little kids. Plus, the kids over here don't fight fair, so I just put up with the crappy TV programs, which the kids love for some reason. I don't know why, does it even have any entertainment value?
Anyways, tonight the M.I.L.F. shirt commercial was topped! How can you top the M.I.L.F. shirt you might ask? Well, there was a little girl (maybe about 10-12) wearing a shirt that said (I kid you not) "What's the Big Fucking Deal?", printed in bold black letters on a pink shirt. I couldn't believe it.
The girl wearing the shirt was a host on this boring kids show where they invade viewers houses and do crappy magic tricks, lame games, & sing horrible renditions of Happy Birthday. The show is basically all kids interviewing kids while they are being controlled by a bunch of kids & two adults dressed up like gothic elfs (I know, WTF? kids show w/ gothic elfs?) inside a digital world.
Some of their crappy magic tricks include pulling a banana out of a top hat that has been sitting on a table the whole time without showing the viewers the inside of the hat first. I know the show is targeted for kids, but, I mean, how dumb can kids be? You'd think they could make theirs tricks a little more complicated than just pulling a banana out of a hat.
One of the dumb games I saw on this show was, one kid throws a paper airplane from one end of the room to the other end where there is another kid with a net trying to catch the plane. While there are about 3 others with fans trying to prevent the one kid from catching the paper airplane. The game is not so bad, but the fact that the kids playing are decked out in full body armor with helmets seems a little odd. Can you even get hurt from trying to catch a paper airplane?
I'm not even going to go into how bad the ear wrenching Happy Birthday singing was, but that is what the "Fuck" shirt girl was doing on the show.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Lots and lots going on lately! We've been busy breeding, culling, pond prepping, pond care, & releasing fry.
Usually the days start out running around to all the fry ponds to give them food & do any maintenance. We have over 30 fry ponds with about 25 where fry have already been released in and we are doing daily maintenance on. On top of all that we just had 7 new fry ponds made for us. We split up into groups or go alone to do maintenance on the ponds at their different locations (4 main locations but now 5 with the new ponds finished).
Also we have been continually breeding, I think we'll probably be finished with breeding around the middle of July, maybe... Within this last week I have been on breeding duty twice, it was only supposed to be once. But since only one of the four females spawned the first night (Marudo's shift), Toshi and I were on duty the next night. Incidently, none of the remaining three females spawned on our shift, but one did later at 9:30 a.m., which is odd because they usually spawn between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. The sencond shift was a complete 180 from the first shift we did earlier that week. In our first shift all of the five females spawned between 10 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.
This past week we bred Kohaku, Showa & Shiro Utsuri. About 2-3 days after the fry have hatched we release them out into the ponds. Before releasing the Showa & Shiro Utsuri we cull out any of them that haven't developed any black. After releasing the fry, we start supplimenting them food if the plankton levels in the pond are low. Otherwise we just do kamasu (mixing the pond's mud & water by dragging a metal bar around inside the pond) until the fry have depleted the plankton, then we start them on food (while still doing kamasu). Once the fry have grown large enough to dig through the mud by themselves then we stop doing kamasu and just give the food.
When the fry attain a size large enough (about 5 cm) to be able to start making out a pattern on them then we start culling them. In the case of Showa and Shiro Utsuri it is the second cull, but in Kohaku & Sanke it is the first cull. In two days we start the first cull on one of our kohaku ponds, I look forward to it.
Usually the days start out running around to all the fry ponds to give them food & do any maintenance. We have over 30 fry ponds with about 25 where fry have already been released in and we are doing daily maintenance on. On top of all that we just had 7 new fry ponds made for us. We split up into groups or go alone to do maintenance on the ponds at their different locations (4 main locations but now 5 with the new ponds finished).
Also we have been continually breeding, I think we'll probably be finished with breeding around the middle of July, maybe... Within this last week I have been on breeding duty twice, it was only supposed to be once. But since only one of the four females spawned the first night (Marudo's shift), Toshi and I were on duty the next night. Incidently, none of the remaining three females spawned on our shift, but one did later at 9:30 a.m., which is odd because they usually spawn between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. The sencond shift was a complete 180 from the first shift we did earlier that week. In our first shift all of the five females spawned between 10 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.
This past week we bred Kohaku, Showa & Shiro Utsuri. About 2-3 days after the fry have hatched we release them out into the ponds. Before releasing the Showa & Shiro Utsuri we cull out any of them that haven't developed any black. After releasing the fry, we start supplimenting them food if the plankton levels in the pond are low. Otherwise we just do kamasu (mixing the pond's mud & water by dragging a metal bar around inside the pond) until the fry have depleted the plankton, then we start them on food (while still doing kamasu). Once the fry have grown large enough to dig through the mud by themselves then we stop doing kamasu and just give the food.
When the fry attain a size large enough (about 5 cm) to be able to start making out a pattern on them then we start culling them. In the case of Showa and Shiro Utsuri it is the second cull, but in Kohaku & Sanke it is the first cull. In two days we start the first cull on one of our kohaku ponds, I look forward to it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
