| I'm not sure that everyone has the correct understanding of jumbo tosia from Momotaro.
Momotaro breed for size, as well as quality. They are chasing genetics to produce large show fish with youthful looks. Many koi from around Japan do not reach 80cm+, of those which do, some have lost their youthful appearance, their skin quality, luster and scales often take a downward turn because they can be 10 to 12 years old by this time. So Momotaro try to make these large sizes at a younger age.
By culling much harder than would be the norm for most koi breeders, they end up with fewer, but on the whole larger, higher quality babies. They breed many more sets than your average koi breeder, 10 fold more than most. But they do not end up with 10 times the number of keepers. Normal keep rate in Japan would be around 2%, at Momotaro it is .5%.
Parents koi at Momotaro are own bred, they do not just keep koi with quality; candidate parents must also have large size. Forced large size is of no use, it must be a natural larger size, GENETICS!
When it comes to harvest time, the tosia come out of the mud ponds larger than would be normal for tosia born at other farms. They do nothing unnatural; they are just fed the same as any other mud pond tosia. They have a head start in the growth stakes, because of the large parent genetics.
With a selected few, they placed into concrete ponds and are heated and fed to a level to make JUMBO TOSAI, come spring these are 40cm+ and even up to 50cm. There is no FORCE FEEDING, just exceptional water quality. The other tosia are just kept as would any other tosia during winter in Japan, in good quality heated water and fed to sustain their health and achieve a little growth. I know of another breeder which injects pure oxygen into the water of all their concrete pond held koi, but this is NOT done at Momotaro, they are raised naturally when compared to other breeders in Japan.
So the bigger sizes are due to selected breeding from parents with jumbo genetics and careful selection of babies which carry these jumbo genetics. Not by unnatural raising techniques.
I have heard of people knocking ‘crap, rip off jumbo tosia from Momotaro. My answer to this is ‘do you know the dealer offing these high quality jumbo tosia? Not every koi coming out of Momotaro is top quality show material; they do not all make BIG sizes. You have to judge the koi yourself before buying; a 25cm tosia in spring from Momotaro is not a jumbo! It’s bigger than most koi of its age, but not JUMBO.
I’ve been to Momotaro 3 times and know it is possible to buy real high quality tosia for reasonable money, let these koi grow out for a year and end up with a koi worth a whole lot more money. I’ve bought Tosai in Niigata for more money and been totally disappointed at the result a year down the line.
I’m not sure how these larger koi will fair, with regard to lifespan, they have not been raised to these larger sizes for long enough, but who is planning on keeping their koi for 20 years plus? Big koi are difficult to handle and move. That I see as the biggest down side and most fatalities I have heard of with big koi is due to moving between pond, show vat and reestablishing back into the pond.
Most koi bought from Momotaro will grow to be big koi, you can’t stop them! Sorry you can by bad koi keeping!
Maurice. |