| Carl,
I suspect that koi could be bred to produce males that look like the idealized female does today. There's no telling how long that process would take, but one look at some of the goldfish varieties would make you think that just about anything is possible. However, the females from this new bloodline would probably be considered too broad and, as such, would be inferior quality and not fit for the show ring.
One thing that surprises me about the whole male-versus-female issue is why breeders are not using hormones to do sex reversal and turn all of the fry from a spawn into females. You can also cross a normal female to a female which was turned into a male at birth and, in so doing, produce all-female offspring. I has already been done, at least experimentally, in common carp.
-steve |