What do Japanese koi breeders do in winter?

Corona has also had its effect on Japanese koi breeders. More and more regular customers are buying online, and they are generally buying cheaper koi. Meeting the breeder for a personal selection at the koi pond has dropped to virtually zero. The top of the range koi are rarely being sold!

This also translates into an increase in the number of koi in the winter facilities and an increase in water pollution. This is a completely new experience for most breeders! They are having to deal with toxic nitrogens, ammonia and nitrite for the first time.

Koi breeders who do not use JBL water tests are faced with an interesting yet unfortunate problem. A lot of the US-ammonia tests available in Japan are extremely unprofessional. Their colour charts have the heading: Ammonium/Ammonia. And the colour change leaves you to choose whether the result is non-toxic ammonium (NH4) or highly toxic ammonia (NH3)! Each professional test includes a table that relates the ammonium value measured to the pH value of the water and then shows the resulting ammonia content. Without such a table the whole test is ABSOLUTELY useless!

The JBL research team measured the water when they visited the koi breeders in 2019. In both the mud ponds and the indoor koi tanks, the pH values were always above 7! This means that with rising pH values, an increasing proportion of the non-toxic ammonium becomes toxic ammonia. Fortunately the breeders are in contact with each other and exchange information. As a result more and more of them are switching to more sensible tests!

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