09/14/2026
This weekend it was Kohaku’s turn.
This spawning was a little different because we used three males, including one Ginrin male that I wanted to experiment with. I’m actually pretty excited about some of the results I’m seeing from that pairing. Looking at the regular Kohaku side, though, I may consider swapping one of those males out next year. Every spawning teaches you something.
This wasn’t a particularly huge spawn. We started with roughly 38,000 fry, but I would estimate we only managed to harvest about two-thirds of them this round, so somewhere around 25,000 actually came through the net. Once I put the aerator back in, I could see quite a few patterned fry still swimming around it. Such is life. We’ll catch up with those on the next round.
From the roughly 25,000 we did go through, 286 went back into the pond.
I don’t quite have the same level of enthusiasm about this batch, in terms of sheer numbers and expectations, that I had with our previous spawning. That said, there are still quite a few fish here that I think have real potential, and I’m interested to see what develops as they get some room and start putting on size.
I’ll also expect some normal attrition after putting fry this small back into the pond, probably around 10% or perhaps a little more. And considering how many patterned fry we know were left behind during the harvest, the real number of potential keepers from this spawning is certainly higher than the 286 we selected today.
One thing I really enjoy about doing this is seeing the progress from one spawning and one culling to the next. Every time through, you learn a little more about what works, what doesn’t, what each parent seems to contribute, and what you might want to change or experiment with the following year. My confidence in making those decisions continues to grow with every batch.
And this is not the only Kohaku spawning we produced this year. I still have several more groups to go through, so there is a lot more to see. I’m especially excited to compare the different pairings and see what each one brings to the table.
The video is a representative sample of the 286 we put back into the pond. I’m not saying these are the very best of them, although there are certainly a few of the better ones mixed in. It should give a pretty fair idea of the overall quality we decided was worth growing on.
Now we give them some space, some food, and a little time to show us what they’ve got.
