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Ten days before we harvested this mud pond they started to drain it. The wooden pegs were removed from the hole in the pipe allowing the water to escape.

 

Before we get started we have some tea and coffee while the breeders discuss the koi we are about to harvest with anticipation. They are very excited because they do not know how these koi will look when they are finally pulled from the pond and placed into some clean water for inspection.

 

With the pond drained down to a fraction of what it normally holds the seine net is stretched out across the pond capturing all of the koi inside of the circle of net.

 

Many other breeders showed up to help seine this pond. Oomo, Kaneko (Senior & Junior), Marusada (Junior) and several other helpers and on lookers. The seine net is pulled tighter and tighter into a smaller and smaller circle.

 

Like I mentioned half of the koi placed into this pond were Oomo's koi and the other half were Kaneko's koi. All of the koi are placed into the orange kiddie pool, then they are seperated into the two blue koi tubs, then they are placed into a plastic bag and carried to clean heavily oxygenated water.

 

These koi do not know exactly what is going on they just know they do not want any part of it! The next picture is of Oomo carrying a bag of koi up to the clean water of a transport tank.

 

Two of the best pictures I saw all day.

 

Mr.Kaneko catches the koi into a bag while his son Yasuaki puts the koi from the bag into a holding/transport tank.

 

Every koi is inspected as it is placed into the clean water. There were many Anchor worms on the koi that were harvested. After we returned to Oomo's farm each koi was inspected and EVERY individual anchor worm was removed with tweezers.

 

So far most of my time has been spent at Fujio Oomo's facility so that is where most of these pictures are from. They are of the fish house and things around the area.

 

Inside and outside this is the typical view of what you can expect to see. Underneath all of the metal grating the filters are located. You won't see any fancy vortex chambers or new fangled micro strainer type filters here, just old fashion Japanese matting and oyster shells. ALL of the filters here are pump fed/gravity returned systems.

 

Freshly harvested koi and some typical koi pond heaters.

 

I went to Nogami's farm after we left Fujio Oomo's to see some nisai that he had just harvested. I think that 2 and 3 year old koi get bigger in comparison to the same age koi from last year's harvests.

 

Average Nisai were anywhere from 45cm to over 50cm.

 

Every koi was carefully looked over and sexed. Then they were separated to three different concrete ponds located in the back of Nogami's green house. High grade, higher grade and customer owned koi. Some of the very best koi from this harvest were actually returned to different mud pond for another month.

 

Mr. Miya from Miyaishi koi farm came to see Nogami's new koi as well. He was not there for more then a few minutes before he was on the phone to a customer to tell him he located that perfect koi.

Not all of the koi are easily sexed and a few are left in the tub for us to debate. Unfortunately there isn't any positive test to tell the sex on younger koi so sometime the breeder will say "maybe 80% female" this way he leaves himself 20% room for error.

 

Typical of how most smaller ponds are harvested, Fujio would do this pond by himself. I helped but more likely I only slowed the process.

 

One of Fujio's friends stopped by to see the harvest. His name is Mr. Hasegawa not to be confused with the kohaku breeder but this Hasegawa does grow some of Oomo's black showa fry.

 

 

know what you are thinking, where did they get waders to fit him. At the Japanese Big and Tall wader store. I think they were the overly large size normally used for an advertising display.

 

 

These are just a few to finish up one of Fujio's harvest.