Time to go grasshoppa

[kgt3]

Will be sending the hatch to the mud ponds this Monday. Will be sad to see them go. Will be glad to not have to cultivate artemia around the clock!!!



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[Busy B]

:eek: That's crazy! What a lot of work that has to be! Your dedication shows :wink:

[Jackie Ramo]

That's a lot of grasshoppas!!! and so tiny!!

Are these to be a specific type? Will all of these go to the mud pond?

[Terri]

Awesome Kiefer.... dumb question but what is that green thing in the pond? A sponge filter? How 'bout a few picture's of the mom and pop's for the litter, please...?

[kgt3]

http://www.applepics.com/52/userfiles/4247093c07a9d.jpg

[marla]

Wow, what else can I say, nice lineage, you can always pop some in a jar and send them my way. :grin:

[Terri]

Nice :grin:


Ok, another question... when do you start culling? Will you be going for kohaku only?

[kgt3]

That's a lot of grasshoppas!!! and so tiny!!

Are these to be a specific type? Will all of these go to the mud pond?

Hey Jackie

Yes most will go to mud ponds. I always keep a netfull here so I can watch them grow. The pond fry grow and develop much faster and better though.
The majority of this spawn was a selective pairing of kohaku. Will also be adding some fry to the pond from a flock spawning of my huge golden yellow ogon female. I do not normally harvest eggs from a flock spawning but I have been trying to spawn her for years and she always seems to outsmart me. So, I had to at least see what she is capable of throwing.

[kgt3]

Nice :grin:


Ok, another question... when do you start culling? Will you be going for kohaku only?

No, these pairs throw decent sanke as well as the occasional tancho sanke and tancho. Will probably do a serious culling in 40 days. The mud pond is large so overcrowding should not be a problem at this stage.

[BonnieIN]

Wow!
After they're in the mud pond, do any turn into a meal for a Crocodile? :-x
(If I remember correctly, you live in FL?)

I bet some of the babies go in your pond, so you can SPOIL them! :wink:

Thanks for sharing,
Bonnie

[Jackie Ramo]

OK Stupid question... wouldn't it be easier to cull before they go into the pond that to catch them and cull at that point?

[kgt3]

That is not a stupid question!

The only thing at this stage that I will be activly removing are fry with obvious defomaties. They are culled. Also, I will remove as many shooters
or what some refer to as tobies (fry that have grown twice as fast as their siblings) and raise them in a seperate area. The urban legend that tobies are usually of poor quality is inacurate. Out of the 80 or so that survived the cull
last year I kept 4. One of them is twice the size of the others and is a spectacular (modern age sanke if u will).

I'll have to get a pic of him eventually. Hard to get him close as all of the other monsters blow the little guys out of the way during hand feeding.

[Jackie Ramo]

Do you separate the shooters to see if the myth is true or because they will eat up their smaller siblings?

That is a big job though sorting through all those tiny bodies. I hope you have a comfy spot to do it in. Looks like a lot of hours represented there.

[kgt3]

They will eat siblings with a verasity of biblical proportions! As far as the hours....I can almost say with assurity that last years cullings put me into a new optical persription :grin:

[Jackie Ramo]

As long as it didn't put you in a back brace :lol:

How long does it take to go through all those fish. I realize that the attention they get this time is not the same attention they will get next time and so forth.

[GregBickal]

Will be glad to not have to cultivate artemia around the clock!!!

It beats getting up at 5am to milk cows :grin: