How to breed koi? How to sex them, how to identify good traits and what is a good che

[Wolf926]

I am going to be attempting to breed koi for my schools ffa and i am hoping to gain more info on them, you can dump and any tips or info here, thx.

 

[Andy Sager]

Have you ever bred fish before? If not, Koi are not going to be good beginner fish to learn with. They are a large fish when of breeding age (3 years old + and over 14" ) and are best spawned in a pond not an aquarium. If you were able to get them to spawn in a non pond situation, then you have to deal with thousands of fry.
My former neighbor was a Koi farmer and I watched him each breeding season go through the arduous tasks involved in breeding his fish. It's definitely not a beginner fish to breed.
I can go on if you are still moving forward or I can suggest other fish which may be easier to deal with and more gauged to your breeding level.
Hope this helps

 

[goku]

I personally like to hand breed them

 

[King Fisher]

I personally like to hand breed them

LMAO. That's good.

 

[Wolf926]

Have you ever bred fish before? If not, Koi are not going to be good beginner fish to learn with. They are a large fish when of breeding age (3 years old + and over 14" ) and are best spawned in a pond not an aquarium. If you were able to get them to spawn in a non pond situation, then you have to deal with thousands of fry.
My former neighbor was a Koi farmer and I watched him each breeding season go through the arduous tasks involved in breeding his fish. It's definitely not a beginner fish to breed.
I can go on if you are still moving forward or I can suggest other fish which may be easier to deal with and more gauged to your breeding level.
Hope this helps

I have bred small live bearers before (ik that doesnt compare) and i would never dream of having enough money to buy a large aqaurium. I am going to buy a few 100 gallon tubs.

 

[Andy Sager]

I have bred small live bearers before (ik that doesnt compare) and i would never dream of having enough money to buy a large aqaurium. I am going to buy a few 100 gallon tubs.

Just out of curiosity, why not do other forms of goldfish that won't require such large and older fish for breeding?
Yes, breeding egglayers is nothing like breeding livebearers. Fry will need a lot of care and attention. I'd start with reading up on raising daphnia and hatching brine shrimp. You are going to need a ton of them for Koi fry.

 

[Wolf926]

Just out of curiosity, why not do other forms of goldfish that won't require such large and older fish for breeding?
Yes, breeding egglayers is nothing like breeding livebearers. Fry will need a lot of care and attention. I'd start with reading up on raising daphnia and hatching brine shrimp. You are going to need a ton of them for Koi fry.

Hmm, ive gotten permision from my teacher to tend to other types of fish as well. What would you suggest i breed? Keep in mind i do need to make a profit from selling the fish, because without the profit i am not allowed to keep them. I dont really care about the money, but ya know how parents are.

 

[Andy Sager]

Hmm, ive gotten permision from my teacher to tend to other types of fish as well. What would you suggest i breed? Keep in mind i do need to make a profit from selling the fish, because without the profit i am not allowed to keep them. I dont really care about the money, but ya know how parents are.

Well this throws a new wrinkle into the plan. I was a commercial fish breeder for many, many years and from what I have learned, you don't make a profit from 1 spawn when you consider all that is involved with tanks, food, equipment, breeders, etc. So unless you are breeding high ticket fish like Discus or similar high ticket fish and you already have most of the things necessary to breed and raise the fry, profits will come with time and many sold fish. Do you have a large market for Koi or Discus? If not, I would consider fish like the Fancy Guppy strains ( not the Box Store varieties) that turn over quickly, don't need a lot of tanks or materials and grow to a salable size fairly quickly. If you have some local fish shops, ask them what they buy weekly so you have an idea what you can sell fast in order to make money on the fish you sell. If you are sold on Goldfish varieties, Orandas are similar breeders to Koi but on a much smaller level.
So now, we need to know what you have to work with in terms of tanks, supplies, fish and customers to better advise.

 

[Wolf926]

Well this throws a new wrinkle into the plan. I was a commercial fish breeder for many, many years and from what I have learned, you don't make a profit from 1 spawn when you consider all that is involved with tanks, food, equipment, breeders, etc. So unless you are breeding high ticket fish like Discus or similar high ticket fish and you already have most of the things necessary to breed and raise the fry, profits will come with time and many sold fish. Do you have a large market for Koi or Discus? If not, I would consider fish like the Fancy Guppy strains ( not the Box Store varieties) that turn over quickly, don't need a lot of tanks or materials and grow to a salable size fairly quickly. If you have some local fish shops, ask them what they buy weekly so you have an idea what you can sell fast in order to make money on the fish you sell. If you are sold on Goldfish varieties, Orandas are similar breeders to Koi but on a much smaller level.
So now, we need to know what you have to work with in terms of tanks, supplies, fish and customers to better advise.

I have 0 equipment right now, but for breeding i will most likely be using 100 gallon plastic tubs from walmart and running aquaponics and diy bucket filters, i am aware i wont make money immidiately, if all goes to plan i will have this breeding set up for 3-4 years.

 

[Andy Sager]

I have 0 equipment right now, but for breeding i will most likely be using 100 gallon plastic tubs from walmart and running aquaponics and diy bucket filters, i am aware i wont make money immidiately, if all goes to plan i will have this breeding set up for 3-4 years.

For most egg laying fish, you get max yield by using a tank for spawning in then another larger tank for growing out the fry. If you are just going to use the 100 gallon tubs, many people have success with livebearers doing them in a single tub as long as there are plenty of hiding places for the fry.
To be honest, the breeding part is the easiest part of the deal. The raising of the fry and getting rid of the fish are the hard parts. Often, your local Mom & Pop shop will be your biggest volume customer so if you have them in your area, what they want to buy weekly is what you want to breed. You don't make money by creating 1000 fish fry ( which is easy to do). You make money by SELLING those 1000 fish fry.

 

[Toad]

I'd say first thing is figuring out who your market is and what they're looking for. Are you planning on selling online, directly to customers, local pet stores or pond supply places? What types of fish are hard to get and what are in surplus?

You could easily sell livebearers as pets and feeder fish, but could end up with a surplus of stock and nowhere to go with them. If you are looking at selling 'good' quality ones (say guppies for example) you'll need to figure out the standards for that type and cull ruthlessly as well as keep records of breeding, crossings etc.
Too large of fish and people won't have set ups to handle them, too common of fish and they may not sell at all.

I'd shop around, talk to stores, check out craigslist (see what is is/is not selling and if you have any competition) and hobbyists in the area, check out aquabid if you're looking at selling online.

Have you thought about selling fish for meat? Offhand I remember hearing about people breeding bass and freshwater shrimp (the big guys). You could maybe even do bait fish.

Definitely do your research good luck

 

[Wolf926]

I'd say first thing is figuring out who your market is and what they're looking for. Are you planning on selling online, directly to customers, local pet stores or pond supply places? What types of fish are hard to get and what are in surplus?

You could easily sell livebearers as pets and feeder fish, but could end up with a surplus of stock and nowhere to go with them. If you are looking at selling 'good' quality ones (say guppies for example) you'll need to figure out the standards for that type and cull ruthlessly as well as keep records of breeding, crossings etc.
Too large of fish and people won't have set ups to handle them, too common of fish and they may not sell at all.

I'd shop around, talk to stores, check out craigslist (see what is is/is not selling and if you have any competition) and hobbyists in the area, check out aquabid if you're looking at selling online.

Have you thought about selling fish for meat? Offhand I remember hearing about people breeding bass and freshwater shrimp (the big guys). You could maybe even do bait fish.

Definitely do your research good luck

Yeah im asking around, and no i will not be raising anything for meat. I could have actually made way easier and greater ammounts of money by sinply raising a pig or some other live stock in the ffa. But i am in no way willing to let anything i have put work and care into die and be eaten.

 

[King Fisher]

It's the cycle of life [emoji6]

 

[Wolf926]

It's the cycle of life [emoji6]

Not for my pets it isnt.