KOI SPAWNING AGGRESSIVE MALES

Koi Spawning Time

All pond keepers who have a healthy pond will experience their koi “Spawning”. One morning you’ll visit your pond and your fish will be chasing one another and jumping with excitement. Your plants will be uprooted and your pond will look like someone poured a small amount bubble bath in your pond water.

Depending on the number of each sex you have in your pond will determine how safe your females will be. When you have a pond with many more males than females, watch to make sure the females aren’t being chased so badly by the males that they cannot rest or eat.

You want the female to be chased by the males so it stimulates her to cast her eggs so she does not become egg bound, however, you do not want the males to chase her to death.
(Not unusual, especially if you have many more males than females or have a very aggressive male.)

Some males will even keep chasing the female after she has cast her eggs.

Here’s how to protect my female from aggressive males

Visit your local Wal-Mart and purchase the very biggest “clothes basket” you can buy with the smallest holes. Place this basket in your pond (it will float).

If you have just one aggressive male, place him in the basket for a few days until he calms down. Or place the chased female in the basket until you feel it is safe to release her back into the pond.

This basket method also works great when you have a fish with a health problem which is not contagious, such as an injury that needs to be fed Medi-Koi and you do not want to go through all the hassle of setting up a hospital tank.

Anytime you need to isolate a fish the “basket method” works great. The nice part is you are not changing the water conditions on your fish and the fish will not be as stressed as it would be in a “hospital tank” all alone.

Water Changes, very important after spawning

During a spawn the quality of your pond water will become very poor. 25% water changes two or three times might be necessary to bring your water back to normal.

Note: When I was importing goldfish, I had a beautiful pair of seven inch oranda goldfish in a 50 gallon aquarium. One morning the goldfish spawned. I was amazed at the condition of the aquarium water. The “foam” on top of the 50 gallon aquarium was at least six inches high. It looked like someone added “bubble bath” to the aquarium.