Spawning

The breeding season is upon us, and we spent the last week preparing for it. We set up all the spawning liners in the concrete tanks & constructed a support system to hold it all up. We also modified the air system by adding spliters into the lines so that each spawning liner has an airstone in it. Next was onto the artificial spawning station, getting all the supplies ready, and tanks set up so we could start spawning.

Two days ago we spawned the first of many sets, a Kohaku, and also a new Sanke we picked up this year. The Sanke is big, and had a lot of eggs! I look forward to seeing how they turn out.

While waiting for the fry to hatch, we set up the `nursury` where we grown the newly hatched fry up to about a centimeter in length before releasing them into the mud ponds. The `nursury` consists of a box net (fine mesh), so again we had a build a support system to hold the box nets. Also, in the `nursury` we us pure oxygen, so we had to set up another air system too. Lasty we set up a brine shrimp hatching station, we use the brine shrimp as a first food for the koi fry.

G8 Summit

On the 11-13th of this month the G8 Labour and Employment Ministers Meeting was held in Niigata city at Toki Messe. Many displays were set up inside of the exhibitors hall featuring products produced in Niigata, along with displays of Niigata`s culture. The Shinkokai was asked to bring koi to put on display, since Nishikigoi are a large part of Niigata`s culture.

On the 10th we headed up to Niigata to set up our booth, it included 3 show tanks, a bench for laying out pamphlets & videos, and a couple display boards about Nishikigoi history & different types. Dainichi brought 2 big kohakus & 1 big showa, all over 80 cm, to put on display. Takahashi brought a dozen or so mixed 2 year olds, and Marudo brought 2 yamabuki & 2 Kujaku 4 year old koi for display. The displays were set up as an appeal of Niigata, and the Ministers & Delegates were allowed to walk around and look in between meetings.

I worked the booth with Otsuka on the 11th, it was a little slow in the morning, but we had quite a bit of people come look in the afternoon. The next day the booth was tended by Dainichi & his wife, and Suda`s daughter Yukari, they said they had quite a bit of visitors. The last day Marudo & his wife were there to answer questions, they said it was pretty slow though. Overall though, the koi were the most popular display, the other exhibitors would often come by to look too.

The afternoon on the last day we tore down, there was a couple news paper photographers taking pictures of us bagging the fish up. So we might be in the news paper! The Summit was very fun, and good exposure for Nishikigoi to the world. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I`m glad to have taken part in it.

Whats Happening in the Koi World?

At the moment, not much. It`s Golden Week (Japanese Holiday) so most people are taking it easy. But a little update on whats been going on lately:

• Most of the koi have all already been released out into the ponds. Pretty much all that is left to put out is the Jumbo Tosai & Tategoi.
• Most of the predator netting on the big koi ponds is done too, only about 3 more ponds left to do. We have about 20 ponds or so that we string.
• Progess on the new koi house is going good, the rebar for all the walls is done; and the forms for the outside walls are almost set.
• We`ve also been doing a lot of moving and shifting around of koi the didn`t sell so that we can make room in preparation for breeding coming up.

After Golden Week is over it looks like we`ll start to release the Jumbo Tosai & Tategoi out into their ponds. Then after that its time to start breeding!

Also, over Golden Week, the boss is in Singapore judging the All Asia Koi Show. And Toshi, the son, is in Aichi prefecture for a koi sale.