Koi are bigger than 13" when they spawn? Wow.
(it's true! you do learn something new every day!)


On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 01:37:05 GMT, "RichToyBox"
wrote:

Bruce,

Koi and goldfish both are egg layers. It sounds as if there was a spawn,
but from your post, I doubt that it was the koi. Koi usually aren't old
enough to spawn at 13". The koi would have lost most of its size during the
spawn, not gotten bigger. The female koi will look really skinny following
the egg laying. The act of spawning by koi, (I don't know about goldfish)
is very violent. The male will be pushing and shoving the female against
the sides of the pond, plant baskets or anything else, and you will think he
is trying to push her out of the pond, no simple nudging. Usually for the
first two or three days they eat the eggs as fast as they can. Between the
milt from the male, which is nearly pure protein, and the additional load of
eating, the ammonia level will go very high and burn the gills if not
treated. The fish staying under the waterfall may be showing the signs of
ammonia burns. Check the ammonia and if it is high, add amquel to bind the
ammonia into the non-toxic ammonium. Since the filter changes the ammonia
to nitrites, the nitrites will also go very high, and cause suffocation, by
causing brown blood disease. Check the nitrites and if high, add salt to
get a 0.1% salt level. Don't feed until all of the eggs are gone or
hatched, such that you don't see them. I suspect the spawn was the comets.

Good luck.