Spring is nearly here!

[roselanekoi]

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Kohaku 1 43cm.jpg (62.42 KiB) Viewed 97214 times

Kohaku 2 39cm.jpg (58.61 KiB) Viewed 97214 times

[roselanekoi]

Sanke 42cm.jpg (66.32 KiB) Viewed 97214 times

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Not bad value for £50 each (£60 for the hi utsuri). Although, when you factor in the cost of food and heating over the past 15 month their true cost would probably be over £150 each. Still a bargain when you consider what koi of this size and quality would cost to buy now.

[roselanekoi]

One time of the year that most photographers look forward to is Autumn. I like visiting Bodnant Gardens to see the stunning Acer collection of Japanese Maples in their full autumn colours. If you time your visit just right then you can get stunning displays like the picture below.

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[roselanekoi]

I made my first visit of the year to Chester Zoo earlier this week on what was a very nice early spring morning. The Jaguars were very active and photographs were taken of two of them along with an Orangutan. Here are 3 of the pictures taken during the visit.

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Zoo 2.jpg (237.81 KiB) Viewed 13937 times

Zoo 3.jpg (218.18 KiB) Viewed 13937 times

[roselanekoi]

A sure sign that spring is here is when the Jackdaws start plucking the ponies for hair to line their nests with.

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A saw a swallow flying about yesterday but, as the old saying goes "one swallow doesn't make a summer", I think summer is quite a few weeks away yet.

[roselanekoi]

Here's a novelty, photos of Koi on a koi club forum.

A selection of tosai (one year old koi) purchased from Quality Nishikigoi in Warrington.

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The varieties are 2 kohaku, 2 sanke, showa, gin rin showa, 2 kujaku and 2 kikusui. They range in size from 19 cm to 25 cm.

Appologies for the poor quality photo which doesn't show the koi at their best.

[roselanekoi]

Tosai Update

After the new filter set up took a while to settle in, taking 2 months for the filter to fully cycle through the nitrification process. Once this happened I began to increase feeding and this, plus the current hot weather, has resulted in a noticeable increase in growth of the koi.

The temperature's been up to 24C with just natural heat and I'm guessing that the koi have grown around 50cm since April. I'll post some photos in the next update.

I see looking at the Quality Nishikigoi website that there are still some of the £200 packages left. I did briefly consider buying one but I don't think my indoor set up could cope with 15 rapidly growing tosai so instead I spent the money a 15kg bag of Sakai growth food.