Friday 18th April 2008.
Today is the day! The first mud ponds are filling and the breeding season 2008 is just days away.
I plan on spawning the first two parent sets on the same day, so mud pond 13 and 14 are filling at the same time. Because the ponds weep into each other for a while until the clay swells and fills the gaps, pond 12 has to be filled at the same time. If I do not do this a few of the tiny new born fry get washed through with the water weeping into the next pond. These few fry manage to survive and when I finally spawn into that pond, these escapees have a big influx of high protein food as they are already bigger and looking for some easy food!
So the plan is (if you can understand), pond 13 and 14 are filled for spawning, pond 12 is filled to the same level to stop any fry being washed through and water which seeps through from pond 12 to 11 is pumped back to 12!
So for these two ponds to be ready for spawning, four ponds must be finished.
First on the list are chagoi and yamabuki, reason being they are just a little hardier and can cope a little better in cool water.
I know this is a little like watching paint dry, but this was the view today 5 minutes in from 'turn on the tap' .
And pond 12 finished ready for filling.
