Steve, I dont know the science behind fat retention. ( if I did I wud be the lean mean machine instead of constantly fighthing to keep trim
)One reason for not retaining body fat in warm waters cud be that kois are more active and burn it thru exercise. I forget to add that he adviced that we shud reduce our water temp from an avg 26degreees C to 20 C using a chiller. Maybe kois like all creatures will eat and store fat to fight the cold? This may be true as we observe kois that were brought directly from Japan (cold) to compete in shows will loose their girth very quickly. We used to think that we dont have the skills in grooming kois.
Sshhish just wild guesses here.
Another thing is, we shud not expect the breeders to tell us their secrets. NExt month in conjunction with the %th Malaysian Koi show, one of the Mano brothers from Dainichi and Nogami will be giving us a talk on showa. I told the dealer who is bringing them in that I would like to learn how to identify sumi on young koi, tosai/nisai that will remin Kage. He looked at me and gave me the smuck grin. Probably he is thinking " where will all these kois go if not in hobbyists ponds!"
