For this year and every year prior, our broodstock is chosen from the very best. We are always pleased with the variety and quality of the koi that come out of our breeding programs.
We are happy to announce that Blackwater no longer imports koi from other breeders. All of our koi are 100% homegrown, protecting them from disease and allowing us to closely monitor their diet and health.
Our gallery is currently down at the moment. Please visit www.koisale.com for more photos. Sorry for the inconvenience.
The chosen males and females have the most vibrant colors and desirable patterns. These koi are then matched together and placed in one of our many ponds. We currently have three farms with over one hundred individual breeding ponds.
After the female lays her eggs and the male has fertilized them, all the adult koi are removed from the breeding ponds and returned to the broodstock holding tanks.
A full grown female can lay up to 600,000 eggs! With 50% fertility rate, the breeding ponds are soon swimming with koi fry. It's all we can do to keep these fry happy and healthy while watching out for natural preditors such as heron and raccoons. Keeping a watch on all the baby koi is a full time job for many of our staff.
Once the fry have grown big enough, the koi are netted and culled, guaranteeing that only the best koi leave the farm. The rest are then mixed into various ponds on the farm to assure there is plenty of variety when they are fished up to be packaged off to the stores.
This process is repeated several times for each brood.
When the fry reach 3-4" they are ready to sell. Each of the ponds are netted and culled one last time and the fish are sorted into classes. There are three different classes: premium, select and decorative. The fish are also sorted into fin type; butterfly or traditional.
Once sorted, the koi are hand selected by professional koi catchers to assure each box has a good mix. They are then securely packaged using a specially designed boxing procedure that reduces stress on the fish. Our koi are shipped all over the world! It's top priority for us to make sure your order reaches you safely and in good health.
The boxes, full of our koi, are then shipped into our loading truck and sent off to the airport, ready to be flown out.
The rest is up to you! We strive to have successful business relationships with all of our customers. We are more than happy to recieve your feedback on our shipments and are always willing to help our customers by giving advice on how to keep your new fish healthy and happy. That's the Blackwater Creek way!
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