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| We offer a Koi Rescue Service. |
Our Field Trip to the Koi Farm Twenty five members gathered at the Sears parking lot early Saturday (Aug 17) morning and off we went to Black Water Creek Fish Farm. It was an easy trip down and we found the farm right away. Joe Pawlak met us in the drive way and made us feel welcome. We were at his home and the first farm he established 5 years ago. Joe said he had a 20 acre property a mile away where he grows out his fish, but it was too deep in mud for us to see. He also has other acreage near Tallahassee. He came to koi farming through his aquaculturalist and Aquatic Eco-systems background. Joe makes several trips to Japan a year and has worked at farms there to learn their techniques. All his ponds are lined with EPDM or industrial grade polyetheline Joe imports much of his breed stock from japan and they spawn year round. The eggs are removed from the females and mixed with sperm from the males in a container then the eggs are placed on spawning mats. They hatch in 4 days. Joe says that koi eggs swell to six times their size once outside the female. Black Water Creek has adopted the policy that they will not buy fish for resale. They will only sell fish they have spawned and raised themselves. In these days of one koi disease after another, this policy is very comforting for all fish buyers. As we entered the farm proper there were two small ponds to our right with a large pond behind. On the left were two other ponds, one with fish he will be shipping out soon and another where he keeps much of his brood stock. He keeps some brood stock in all his ponds so if one pond goes bad Joe will still be in business. In the middle of the farm is a roofed shack area where all the packing and shipping takes place. There are several more ponds on the property including one that Joe seined out to show us how it is done. He and two helpers stretched a long net across the pond and pulled it slowly towards us. Several times his man Frank had to get in the pond to make sure the bottom of the net did not lift up and let fish escape. As it was many fish managed to avoid the net or jump over it. Connie Langston also got her turn pulling on the lines. Once the net came in Joe netted out several bowls of fish for us to inspect. He took a long time showing us what he looked for when culling fish and explaining what he expects to get when different varieties of koi are crossed. The fish he had in this pond were diseased with flukes and other common parasites, but not to worry as all ponds have these creatures and he makes sure all his fish are clean before they leave the farm. He showed us how he bags and boxes fish for shipment. First a measured amount of treated water is shot into the bag. Joe’s shipping water has 0.5% salt and other medications included. After the fish are in he double bags them and closes up the double-walled cardboard box. It is then to the airport and on to the customer. He says shipping is expensive. A box of fish from Japan may cost $300 in shipping alone. This is one reason why Japanese fish are so costly in the USA. We also visited a screened in building where he quarantines his fish. The space has a cat walk between 6 large round tanks set up in a six-pack arrangement. The filter system for this building is a gravity feed to the filter were the water is forced through a 60 micron screen to remove solids and then through two large vats full of bio-material. When the screen gets clogged a spray cleaning system automatically turns on and knocks all debris off the screen. Once we had the full tour Joe opened up several tanks with fish to buy. The club bought three fish that will be available for auction in December. |
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