Rod, They don't put any fish into spawning tanks until mid Feb every year. These fish are held in 1 acre ponds as soon as eggs are collected in spawning mats, they go back to ponds. The primary forage for these are Koi. They raise Koi in separate ponds just for forage use and they dump a butt-load of Koi into each acre pond containing Females in one, Males in another. Several thousand pounds of Koi are used in each during the year. I talked to the Hatchery Bio today and ask about genetics. He says nothing special but they only tag fish above the 3 mark and if they make 4 the following year, they go into spawning tanks, but Koi is the key to their system. He says 5lbs on proper forage is no problem for a male and very common. Some of the fish we moved were up to 12 yrs old.
Last edited by Snipe; 03/02/22 08:35 PM.
