24/09/2026
From accidental spawn to our first planned breeding attempt. 🐟
After the absolute chaos of our first unplanned home spawn, we could have decided that breeding koi was not for us.
Instead, it made us curious.
Very curious.
We wanted to understand what had gone wrong, what had gone right, and whether we could improve the outcome if we prepared properly.
So the following season we started planning.
First came the parent fish.
We chose Batman’s sister, a scaleless orange female with a similar masked pattern, together with selected males.
Then came everything else.
Bowls. Buckets. Scales. Measuring equipment. Syringes. Towels. Lights. Incubation containers. Aeration. And a homemade hatching setup that slowly began taking over the house.
What we learned very quickly was that successful breeding starts long before there are any eggs.
Timing matters. Broodstock condition matters. Water temperature matters. And every piece of equipment needs to be ready before the process begins.
The first spawn had happened to us.
This time, we were deliberately trying to understand and manage the process ourselves.
This was the beginning of our first planned, hormone-assisted breeding attempt.
And the next part gets considerably more scientific.
Next: preparing the brood fish.
