[jnorth]

Quote: Originally Posted by luke frisbee The variables.... first establish the point of the contest.... One of the best contests could be to determine whether a certain domestic breeder's fish are as good as Japanese fish. now how could that be even slightly decided through a grow out contest.... A dealer could ask three Japanese and three American breeders to send him 25 of their best $40 "tategoi in the 5-7 inch range. Take pics and give them random ID numbers. And post the pics without anyone aware of which is what. All the participants pic from the list... Some will get all domestic and others will get all japanese... ya Plays your money and you take your chances.. at the end of it all some renowned koi judges could filter through what volume of information is created and they could offer their humble opinions as to which koi appear to be the best....and then later be asked to pick the japanese out if they want to. And after that is done the dealer could post the source (breeder/country) of each koi. Not scientific but it would generate some insight.

I like that idea but the problem is the price difference between the same quality grade import vs domestic. To get the same price the import koi would likely be of a lesser quality because you have to factor in the cost of shipping from Japan. Not saying it can't be done but the dealer putting up the koi for the contest would have to either take a hit on the imports or make a real nice profit off the domestics.