Spring harvest brings breeder closer to populating elusive koi

AMENIA — The day was all about the smooth-skinned, curvaceous Beyonce and her plump siblings, Sweet Cheeks and Lyra. The task at hand was to fish the egg-y trio of first generation Japanese koi out of a mud pond containing hundreds of other koi, and release them into another pond on the property where they will spawn a new generation. 

The process, which took place on Tuesday, May 14, brought Maxine Paetro, a backyard breeder, one step closer to her aspirations to stabilize the elusive ki shusui, a rare, yellow breed of koi. The first-generation, or F1 ki shusui, are being used for their genetics with an eye toward a third, or F3, generation.

Historically, Paetro said, this buttery-smooth, scaleless variety has only been achieved as a byproduct of crossing midori koi, but she was inspired to create this variety through line breeding.  Two generations have been spawned since 2012, and now the breeder is about four years from her goal of being able to cross a pair of ki shusui and get a high percentage of ki shusui offspring. To the best of her knowledge, line-breeding of ki shusui has not been done before, said Paetro.

“Breeding koi is a lot longer process than, say, breeding hamsters,” said Paetro. “The females have to be at least 4 years old, and their eggs have to be ripe and plump.” The ki shusui project started in 2009, and 2012 marked the first successful spawn of the first young ki shusui koi. 

And so, with spring’s arrival, the breeder and her team of helpers set out to find “three fish in particular,” Beyonce and siblings, who were born in 2014, and return them to mate with their offspring. The process involved lowering the water level of the 150,000 gallon pond, using a seine net to scoop up the koi, and then counting, sorting and releasing hundreds of fish back into the water. John Clark of Rhinebeck, N.Y., a fish breeder, headed up the project.

“Today we are attempting back-crossing, by reintroducing three ki shusui with their offspring. There’s a strong shot that the original fish could come up with some fish that have skipped a generation or two, cross back to the earlier generation,” said Paetro. “I am trying to make this red fish into a yellow fish. Why? Because it only comes by accident.”

“When I get to F3, I will have ki shusui coming out of my ears, and that is an image I can live with. I’ll be 75 and then can turn my attention to less expensive time-consuming pursuits,” laughed Paetro, who, when not tending to her koi, feeds two other passions: writing and gardening. The published author, who collaborates with best-selling author James Pattterson, also created an epic English-style garden at her sprawling property, Broccoli Hall.

But for now, all eyes were on the pond. Clark slowly pulled in the seine net, and the koi wriggled and splashed in a roiling sea of color. “There aren’t too many backyard breeders with this kind of fish. You won’t see this happening much in the United States, except for maybe fish hatcheries, but not with Japanese fish.”

The terms for their unique markings are as colorful as the fish. A zipper is the black line of dorsal fins that run along the koi’s back. A fish with lipstick, or “kuchi beni,” means there is a red color around its mouth. But not until this day had anyone seen a fish with green eye shadow. 

“One of the kuchi beni’s has green eyeshadow!” said Paetro, pointing to the koi in Clark’s net. “Honest to God, I have never seen this before.”

Once the three F1 koi were safely snagged, they were transported to the lower pond, where Paetro gently released them into the cool waters. With a wave and a smile, she waved to the fish, “See you in the fall.”

An earlier version of this article included a quote from Maxine Paetro noting that "line-breeding had not been done before." Her quote should have instead read "To the best of her knowledge, line-breeding of ki shusui has not been done before."