Do Different Koi Spawn at Different Times of Year?

by Steve
(Utah)

Hello,

My koi spawned in early June and we have been keeping an eye watching the fry grow for the last month as they have now grown to about 1 inch in length.

Today after checking on them we noticed a new batch of fresh fry about 1/4 inch on length. So I am curious with everything I have read is that koi only spawn once a year in spring. Did I have a late spawner? Or just some eggs that hatched late?

Once I found this year's fry I moved all of last year's spawn about 4" inches long to my bigger pond so they wouldn't eat the fry.

Is it possible that after that they acclimated and spawned or is it like salmon where it's one and done at the same time? Just trying to get a better sense of what to look for in the future.

Thank you.

---

Grant's Reply

Hi Steve

As this website is about Goldfish, I did read a few websites on Koi to confirm my assumption that as Koi are closely related to Goldfish, I would expect their spawning behavior to be the same.

The first website I found did state that Koi only spawn once a year in spring.

This is not the case. As with Goldfish, they will spawn multiple times in a season, with the first spawning usually being the biggest.

It appears the information about Koi is as bad as it is for Goldfish, with multiple sites quoting the same wrong information.

This myth probably became established because as Koi will lay between 100-500,000 eggs, why would you need or want to breed them a second time in a season?

I like to breed my Goldfish once, early in the season so that I have the maximum amount of growing season before winter temperatures set in.

To answer one of your questions, no, eggs don't hatch at different times. Once they start, they will all be hatched within half a day.