Spawning

We use a variety of methods to spawn the fish in the spring.

Some are wild-spawned where the males and females are placed in the mud ponds and allowed to spawn on removable nests. Some nests will be moved to grow-out ponds and others will remain in the ponds with the parent fish.

Some are tank-spawned. Parent fish are injected with hormones to induce ovulation and then placed into fiberglass tanks lined with nests. If conditions are agreeable, the parent fish will spawn the following morning. Egg-laden nests are then moved to prepared hatchery ponds

Some are hand-stripped. Again, the parent koi are injected with hormones. The following morning, the fish are monitored for signs of ovulation. When ovulation begins the females are sedated and the eggs are stripped into a stainless steel bowl. Soon afterwards, milt from the males are mixed with the eggs and fertilization begins. Fertilized eggs are placed into hatching cones where they will remain until they hatch 4 to 5 days later.