My new project: Koi Angels

[Born to Breed]

Where I live there are no LFS, there is a little pet kiosk in a local mall.  Sourcing broodstock is not easy so I have been courting the owner of that shop, he has access to Mexico City wholesalers.  I asked him to get me 5 Koi Angels, I was expecting more orange than yellow but in my position I pretty much have to take what I can get.  Also they are bigger than I expected but that isn't really such a bad thing I suppose.  Anyway he brought in twelve, I ended up selecting six which turned out to be a good idea since one didn't make it 24 hours 😞  After one week the remaining 5 are doing great, eating voraciously but ONLY at the surface, they want floating food.  If it starts to descend they will follow it a few inches down but that's it.  The one at the very top in this photo is the big dog on the porch, I'm glad because it's the best looking.  The three larger ones are maybe a tad over 2" body length and like I say the one fish is pretty bossy so I'm thinking it may not take all that long for a pair to form.  I'm excited !🤣

As an only tangentially related note can anyone tell me why my photos always come out sideways on this site?  It's only here, not a problem anywhere else.  

[Odd Duck]

On 7/9/2023 at 4:53 PM, Born to Breed said:

tell me why my photos always come out sideways on this site?

There’s something about the software, but you can beat it by editing your photos.  Even the tiniest crop will make the pics stay upright.  Koi angels should have a strong orange color.  Those look like gold marbles, not kois.  They can get slightly lighter from shipping but shouldn’t lighten up much. First pic is shortly after arrival while in quarantine.  Second is in the main tank - photo was supposed to be of the Fissidens moss with one of my less colorful kois as a photobomber who changed the focus at the last minute (ignore dirty glass.  😝).

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by Odd Duck

[anewbie]

Orange is not a natural colour for angels (even koi) they turn orange/red if they eat a lot of carotene in their diet which is generally safe for them though like most thing there is probably a limit. So the trick is to feed them quality food that contain some  carotene and you will get more red/orange in your koi. Btw if they stop eating carotene the colour will slowly revert. So if you pay for that $1000 red koi and dont' feed it the right diet you end up with a $10 koi. Conversely if you feed that $10 koi the right diet you end up with $1000 red koi 😉

 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by anewbie

[Born to Breed]

Yea those are more like what I was hoping for but as I said above I pretty much have to take what I can get.  In my marine hatchery I used Cyclops-Eaze to bring out the deep color in my clownfish and others, it's loaded with astaxanthin.  If I can source it I'll use it (either) but it's doubtful I'll find it, maybe in Mexico City