Friday 2nd May 2008.
Yesterday there was no sign of yamabuki fry, today absolutely thousands clinging to the side of the spawning net! So Lynn told me this evening I was the same with these spawnings last year, as they were the first and had the same worries. I must be getting old, I can't remember! The chagoi fry are free swimming and no matter how many pictures I took, I just couldn't seem to break the surface glare, so all the pictures show the surface and no koi fry!
I just managed to get one shot which just about shows the yamabuki fry. These are still clinging to the net side, being near invisible, I had to shake the net to make them swim and then snap the photo.
Look hard and you can just see the fry, they are grey in colour, many show two dark eyes.
This shot is at the closest 'macro' setting on the camera, the holes in the net are only the diameter of a pin.
I had planned on spawning another set or two this week, but due to my water temperature fears, I held off. Last evening I started filling two more mud ponds ready for the next batch. So by the middle of next week there should be more action.
Happy with the hatch rate of both chagoi and yamabuki, this evening I let one corn of each floating net drop below water level. The fry will now swim out when they are ready.
As reported yesterday, the canaries have laid some eggs, today while the female was off the nest having a drink, I snapped a photo. The nest is high and I can't see into it, so this photo was one of many as I couldn't see through the view finder of the camera.
Canaries are not renown for their nest building skills, as they are normally bred in cages with artificial nests, so I think she has done a pretty good job from scratch.