[Sangreaal]

As most of my friends know, I'm a skin and scalation nut, and if there's one thing I want to know everything about, it's the skin and scalation of koi.

One of the things I've tentatively mentioned here and there on the board is the possibility of some of these Shiros having convex scales and resultant pearl gin rin, and I've pointed out several fish from our growout group that had signs of such (Super Kindai's #166 being the most likely, but Carolina Girl and others have one too ).

I have had the unique opportunity to take some time and compare my little growouts to Bindi, my pearl gin rin Tancho, and finally I've managed to put together a few pics that can be studied in order to understand just what creates pearl ginrin.

I now have evidence that every one of my three have varying degrees of convex scales and high lustre, which is the basis for every pearl ginrin. The more convex the scales, the more pronounced and round are the pearls. The higher the lustre, the finer the ginrin effects across the different faces of scale.












Unlike color patterns, ginrin patterns are ephimeral and not able to be seen at every angle in full brilliance. It's really hard to catch by camera and impossible to hold with the naked eye. I'm beginning to think that Masunosuke ginrin, Kado ginrin and pearl ginrin are only separated by scale shape. This is a thesis I wish to explore with these and other growout fish I have here.

Each of my Omosako growouts have differently shaped/angled/curved scales, with the Little Blue having the oddest of the three. Each of them have strings of ginrin lights down them at some opportune angle, and their scales all have an edging of ginrin in varying degrees of thickness before the whole scale illuminates in shiny lustre.










Just a quick look at Bindi's pearls for reference when illuminated and seen from topside:


Why do the pearls look so small from up top? It is the top corner of each scale being bent inward that creates the glimmering gin from this angle. The more convex the scale, the harder a bend to the top corner, which will make a topside view more dramatic.

Bindi has moderately convex scales with a very smooth and silken lustre, which will make the center of the scale illuminate from the right vantage point (as in the first two pics in this post). The little tosais do not have as curved a scale as Bindi's, but they are slightly convex. The striations in each scale are sharper than Bindi's, and the shiroji a harder white whereas Bindi's is more of a creamy white. Still, we get an allusion towards pearl ginrin from each of them in varying degrees.















I have alot of pics to still sort through and so many more yet to take, so I'll end this post right here and continue later as I find more and better examples to study. But I thought I'd best get as many photos of the babies next to Bindi as I can for comparison sake before I move her to the other QT....

Super Kindai (Junichi-san ) has some images up on his thread of some extraordinary Pearl Gin Rins. Take a peek at those if you want to see some really good ones.

Super Kindai Grow Out Form

And discussion is always welcome here. Orating can be tedium.... *S*