Breeding Koi: Controlling The Population Of Your Pets

With most domesticated pets, controlling the population is easy in breeding, because it's just simple to remove any possibility of conception until the time has already come to pass for its opportunity. But it's really quite different with the Koi. They'll always lay and spawn eggs whether you want them to or not, and others will fertilize them as well.

Since contraceptive methods aren't available for your fish, you may resolve this by removing those unwanted babies after they've been born. Although this method might seem harsh, keeping all the offspring can bring harm to both your pond and the parent fish!

So, what would make the babies harmful? Primarily, it has something to do with the length that they can grow into. They will grow up to 3 feet, regardless of where they're being placed into. Now, an overpopulation will convert your beautiful pond into a wasteful and overfilled ones!

With too many fish living in a smaller pond, the fish themselves will be very uncomfortable with their environment. As you set up your pond, have a filtration system for a specific number of fish. Adding extra fish in your pond with adding more system to it will produce harmful gases and chemicals that will impose danger to them.

How do you dispose of the babies? There are many ways of doing this. First is to stop feeding your fish the moment you realize that spawning has already taken place. Never worry about them starving, as it is their nature to focus more on the natural foods that they see if they aren't fed by their owners daily.

Now, this "natural diet" includes their own young. Although they're not cannibals, they eat their young when they are still eggs or if they look like little insects, and they will only stop feeding until they see their young looking like real fish. That's why it's important for you to start this process as soon as you observe that spawning has occurred.

Another way of doing this is by giving the unwanted offspring away to others. Look for your local pet store and see if they have the programs that accept unwanted animals and give them good shelter. Some stores may even pay a certain amount of money for each fish since they will sell them after (but don't count on this).

Also, you can search for local zoos that have this program. If you know any local Koi society, you can give them notification that you have unwanted babies. You can also find on the Internet online message board or group where you can post your notifications and messages there.

Breeding and keeping your Koi as pets is a fun hobby, but make sure that you take good care of them by monitoring their population in your pond on a regular basis.