All winter we have been following special selected koi bred from our female Sanke breeder, named Fishbach.
Mat has put 4 of these young koi that he as been following up for sale on our website, each are priced at $200
http://www.qualitykoi.com/koicatalog/137-new-fishbach-sanke-2010-offspring
Here in the blog we wanted to share some of the photographs we have of these koi from Jan -July. These 4 koi are now 10-11.5inches
This week the guys went thru the Fishbach offspring again.
Things here on the farm are very busy and Mat has not had time to sit down and go over all the details of the koi with me. So, for right now i have only some pictures to share.
The first photo was taken mid January – the second photo was taken this week (Mid March)
You can see how much tosai change in only a short few monthes
Enjoy!
At harvest time,we placed the smallest of the Asagi/Shusi and Butterfly koi, in a warm but not hot, greenhouse. 
Now that Mat has done another sort thru of the koi in our growout greenhouse and some koi have been moved out for sale, he is able to move the best of these small Asagi/Shusi and Butterfly koi into the growout greenhouse. With still 2 monthes before we open fully for the season and with the growth rate we are getting on the koi in the growout greenhouse, we have plenty of time to raise these small koi for sale.
This year we celebrate a decade from our groundbreaking here at the Nisei Koi Farm.
During our first decade of breeding, we have bred more Sanke pairings than any other variety and the farm has become known for breeding high class Sanke. This wasn’t a surprise to us because of our close relationship with Mr. Toshio Sakai and access to high class parents from his farm.
Here is a timeline to help catch everyone up on the past ten years of our sanke breeding
Following the Nisei Sanke line
2005 – we first used our Matsunosuke female“rental” Sanke as a parent in breeding.
2006 – Used a Momotaro Sanke female with our Matsunosuke male “rental” sanke for a breeding pair
2007 – Bred again the female rental sanke
2008 – Bred again the female rental sanke
The 2005 spawning produced a koi we refer to as “Fishbach Sanke”. This was the #1 koi from the spawning in terms of parent quality.
The 2006 spawning produced a koi we refer to as “McMahon 3 step Sanke”. This was the #1 koi from the spawning.
The 2007 spawning produced “Hermy”. The #1 koi of the spawning for both parent and show quality.
The 2008 spawning of the female rental sanke gave us a male sanke that exceeded the quality of the Japanese males we have on hand.
2010 was the first year we used American female Koi, bred here at our farm, for parent stock.
The reason – these 3 females produced here on the farm exceeded the quality of the Japanese parent stock we have on hand.
2010 spawning
First sanke used was Hermy. Bred May 29th, she had a successful breeding but being the youngest of the three @ 3 years old she had a small egg mass. This resulted in a low number of sanke produced from the spawning. However, her young are of very high quality and due to the low number of koi in the pond, these koi are Jumbo tosai.
Hermy Female Sanke
The next sanke used for spawning was the 3 step sanke. This spawning failed, as she jumped out of the spawning net in the mud-pond and released her eggs with out males present to fertilize them.
With the unsuccessful spawning of the 3 step sanke, we did a late spawn of the Fishbach sanke to the male produced in 2008. This spawning was a great success. She produced a large number of very high quality koi. With the large numbers of koi produced and spawning late in the year, these koi were harvested between 3-5 inches.
Fishbach Female Sanke
Now that we are at the beginning of 2 new sanke lines, we would like you to join us on the journey of following and learning from these koi.
The best off spring from these spawings were harvested in the fall and brought into our growout greenhouse.
Each group of koi in the grow out greenhouse are being followed on size and quality. The procedure below shows the growing plan for “Group A” , the larger sanke from the Fishbach sanke spawn.
Growing Procedure
Group A is the largest sanke from the spawn of Fishbach sanke
Koi are photographed at about 6 inches. +- ½
The koi weigh average 60 grams – around 1/8 lb
The koi have been placed in grow out in a 1600 gallon system
At the next selection we want the koi to have doubled their weight to a ¼ lb or 125 grams
When the koi are at this weight we want the filter to be able to handle a feeding rate of 3% of the total body weight in the system.
Our loading of the system should not exceed 1 lb of koi per 30gal of culture water(not including filters) being fed at 3% body weight per day.
1600gal system/ 30 gal = 53.33 lb of koi at 1/4lb each at the end of our grow out.
Based on this calculation, we can not exceed 210 koi to start the grow out.
53.33lbs of koi X 3% = 1.6lb of food being fed per day is the max we can feed the koi.
Each group of koi in the grow out will follow the grow out procedure based on their starting size/weight
Usually the best of the best koi from a particular spawn are not normally published when they are tosai. This year we thought we would try something a little different and display all the tategoi from our sanke spawns.
Hermy’s off spring are the first koi for sale. These have been and will continue to be graded during their time on the farm. Some of these koi will be sold and taken home this Spring and Summer; others may remain here over the next few years growing in our mud ponds.
The Fishback sanke will be the next koi up on our website. We are in the process of photographing them.
Follow these koi with us as we watch their progress!
All the koi that were coming in from the mud ponds are now settled in warm greenhouse and those koi staying in the mud ponds for the winter are cooling down as our temps drop here in NJ.
The quarantine for the tosai koi in the greenhouses is complete and these koi have been placed in our growout greenhouse were they have been feeding heavily on auto feeders for the past few weeks.
Now that all the koi that are in the greenhouses are stable, its time for their first winter sorting. Mat will is going thru all the tosai that have been brought into the greenhouses.
Each koi will be measured to see the growth from harvest time. The koi then will be split 2 ways, for sale or hold for growing (Tategoi).
The tategoi koi will remain in the grow out greenhouse in lesser stocked tanks and on a high feeding regiment.
The koi beginning sorted today are the first harvest back in early September. This sorting process will take us few days to go thru all the koi and record all the new data.
What is exciting about these winter splits are the koi now going into the “Special Tank”. Yep, its holding the canidates for the 2011 May 555 event!
Keep an eye on the blog and our magazine ads to get sneak peeks of potential 555 event koi!
The air is a bit crisp, but luckly the sun is till shining.
With a very successful breeding season, the guys had to break from harvesting the koi and get more ponds up and running to receive more koi from the mud ponds.
These are the current newly put in systems
The asagi have just been harvested and the sorting has only begun. But, here are a few quick shots.
Asagi
Gin Rin Asagi and Shusui
Over the past few weeks, we have been sorting through all of the small koi that were being quarantined in our new Growout Greenhouse. Now that the sorting is done, the real “growing out” has begun. The water temperature is set for a nice, warm 78 degrees. In each of the Polygeyser tanks, the koi have been grouped together based on size, then the koi have been weighed to determine the amount of food for optimal growth. At the beginning of the trial last week, the koi were 6-8″.
Not only are these koi in growout, they are also part of a trial here at the farm. We are testing different types of food to see how the various foods affect the growth of the koi. We are only doing this trial in the Polygeyser systems so that the filtration is not a variable in our trial. Each week these koi are weighed and measured, and then the food quantity is adjusted. Because we are trying to acheive maximum growth through many small feedings throughout the day, it is imperative that the water quality is tested each day.
Below are photos of some of the koi in our growout.
It has been a long road, but the heat is now on in our new Grow-out Greenhouse! We have successfully raised the water temperature in each system to it’s target. This will now give us the ability to provide optimal growing conditions for these smaller koi. We will keep you updated on their progress.
One of the very last components to heating our new Grow-out Greenhouse is bringing electricity to fire up the boilers. Below is a picture of the electric box and conduits. The work is almost complete, we will be firing up the heaters soon!
We have been posting about the two different types of filtration in our new Grow-out Greenhouse. Today’s post will explain our Polygeyser setup. For this particular filtration system, we bought an off the shelf filter with no pre-filtration. However, instead of using the suction pressure it is gravity fed. According to the manual, we can feed up to 10lbs of food per day per system. While this is a smaller footprint than the vortex system, the price tag is higher at about $3800. The big advantage to this system is that it automatically backwashes using a small amount of air. Both the vortex system and the Polygeyser are both air driven to dump dirt and water. They are both set to do this automatically six times a day. This is how we attempted to level the playing field between the two different systems.
