Very few people who have a koi pond will want to breed their own fish. Koi breeding is an involved undertaking requiring a commitment well beyond that of the typical garden pond owner. Your koi will likely spawn in your pond, but the eggs and surviving fry will most likely be eaten. A few may survive, especially in a heavily planted pond, but intentionally breeding koi is usually not the goal of the pond owner. Koi are bred very successfully in the Far East, Israel, Europe, the United States and other countries as well.

However Japan is still considered the epicenter of quality koi production. The breeding of high grade koi is not only a science, but it is an art. In Japan it is not uncommon for a koi breeder to spend a lifetime developing and ultimately perfecting a single strain of koi. Often, the task of doing this cannot be completed in one lifetime and the  development of the desired strain is passed along to the next generation. The professional breeders of Japan are not in any rush to produce the best koi in the world, in many people’s opinions, they already do.

 

Healthy young start with healthy adults. It is important to feed your koi a good quality diet. A quality pellet that is high in protein makes a perfect staple diet for your koi. The conditioning process should begin after the winter dormancy period is over. You should bring your koi out of dormancy with a low protein diet. Once the water has warmed and the koi are feeding normally you can switch to the staple diet which is high in protein.

 

Koi Spawning
Healthy koi will probably spawn each year. The female koi will begin to show signs of ripening and will be looking for a place to deposit her eggs. The males will chase the females and the males can become overly aggressive to the females. The female koi will seek out the best place to deposit her eggs. Immediately after ward the male koi will deposit his milt over the eggs to fertilize them. This process will usually take place among the vegetation in the pond. Koi are not very good parents, they are not really considered to have any parental skills at all. They lay the eggs and forget about them or they lay the eggs and then turn around and eat them. It makes you wonder how any survive at all. If there is sufficient vegetation in the pond a few fry may escape and hide until they are too big to be eaten, at which point they will come out of hiding and join the school.

 

To purposely breed your koi in a backyard pond for desirable traits, would be for most a demanding process and meet with limited success. The purposeful spawning of koi in order to achieve desired color varieties and strains is a science and an art. You need to gather as much information as you can by reading books, articles and by talking to as many people as you can about koi and all other aspects of keeping these wonderful fish.