| Goodness. JR has added as many subjects to this thread as Hudi! Everything is interconnected.
Going back first to an earlier comment ... that the locally bred koi in Taiwan seem to hold up better, and that imports were heavily from warmer [than Niigata] southern Japan, raises lots of thoughts. I do not believe serious koi breeding began in Taiwan until the 1980s [??Wish I could find a reference to it, but cannot put my hands on it.] So, not much time for developing a truly different genetic pool. ... At most only 3 or 4 generations. That in turn makes me think that there could be a mechanism of adaptation by fry to warmer conditions or a human selection factor by which fry coloring better despite heat are not culled although those same fry would be culled (or many of them, anyway) if they & their siblings had been raised in cooler (or shorter growing season?) conditions. The latter notion would suggest individual variability in adaptation to warmer conditions, even among Niigata-bred lines. To the extent koi bred in southern Japan may do better in subtropical climates, it could be either factor at work. Either way, there might be a benefit to the warm climate koikeeper acquiring koi bred and raised in warmer locales, rather than focusing on Niigata-bred koi. [Treason!] .... it is all too much to contemplate at this point in the day. |