Where is Hato?

Haven’t been posting much since winter basically had us in a deep freeze. This weekend the pond digger announced that winter was over. The temperatures have been above 40 and will be going up to the 50s this week. The outdoor ponds are beginning to melt and the indoor koi seem to be little more active. We did some water changes and the pond digger added a little more circulation to all of the tubs.

indoor koi land
indoor koi land
Farm Boy, Ethel and Zuzu
Farm Boy, Ethel and Zuzu
Buttercup, Tarzan and Irene
Buttercup, Tarzan and Irene

One of the larger koi is looking a bit odd. Zuzu’s eyes look a little pop-eyed to me which could be a symptom of something. You would think that sitting indoors, these koi would do a little better.

Zuzu has a little pop-eye going on which worries me. Could be a sign of illness, or hitting the side of the tub or water conditions. Will have to monitor...
Zuzu has a little pop-eye going on which worries me. Could be a sign of illness, or hitting the side of the tub or water conditions. Will have to monitor…

Outside there are some holes in the pond but a great deal is still covered with ice that is about 10 inches thick. We filmed under the ice about seven times over the weekend to check on the outdoor gang. Unfortunately one koi, 12 inch Sobakasu was motionless next to the bottom drain. Didn’t look bad (no fungus, no weird skin lesions) but perhaps not hardy enough.

another winter casualty - Sobakasu did not survive the outdoor winter pond
another winter casualty – Sobakasu did not survive the outdoor winter pond

This has given me great concern about Hato. I have reviewed the GoPro footage several times and there is no sign of this one koi. Either Hato is very camera shy or he could be stuck to the ice and quite dead. I’m hoping for camera shy. The rest of the crew seem to be doing just fine outdoors and from what I can tell, their skin looks good and no one seems to be afflicted with anything.

Where is Hato???
Where is Hato???

The little tosai are continuing to grow and do a very good job of appearing to be hungry whenever I walk by their tub. I can’t resist feeding them when they swarm to the edge of the tub and smack their lips. It’s a good thing we have a net on the tub because they swim on top of each other and try to push over the lip to get more food.

seventeen hungry tosai
seventeen hungry tosai

I will be looking for Hato all this week and hopefully I will have a photo of him alive and well in the winter pond next weekend 🙂