Wednesday 30th April 2008.
First thing this morning I headed off down to the far end and laid on the grass and gazed for ages into mud pond 14, there should be chagoi fry by now, yet I could see none! At this point I am getting very worried, as this would be devastating to lose the chagoi spawn. Although I have another female in the wings, she is untried, being one of my own bred yonsai (4 years old).
Work is continuing with the mud ponds and 7 are finished or near finished. The others are coming on well, but the last few metres at the deep end of each is still slow to dry.
So the middle of the day came and I started making contingency plans. Although koi eggs hatch according to the temperature of the water, I was convinced the eggs had been killed by the cold water as I felt sure I should be seeing some life by now. The eggs were laid Friday Night/Saturday morning, at 24c I tend to see fry in large numbers by the end of the third day, here we were at four days and I could see no life! The water was 20c when I spawned the chagoi set, I thought this would set the hatching back by a day and expected to see a few fry today. I have a floating thermometer in the pond and caught it up with a net, this gave me the answer, the water had dropped to 15c!
Were the eggs alive or dead? I feared the worst!
Around 5pm I was starting to wrap things up for the day, feeling just a little sad that I could have lost the eggs from the first two spawnings of the year. I walked to the end of the tunnels to have a last check on the birds. Before I left, I laid down on the grass bank again and stared into mud pond 14.
I saw half a dozen fry clinging to the side of the net!