| Where do all the Koi go?
every year the breeders produce many, many thousands of fish.
of course they are not all the highest quality. most people don't want to show their fish anyway. even though showing drives the hobby and breeders to produce more better quality.
then there are all the fish from the previous years. they have grown now for another year or two or ten. that is a lot of huge fish over time.
a related question-
let's just imagine one group of giant tosai from Momotaro say. good quality parents. they may not have the pattern to be GC but they still have the genetics to be very large fish. they may not go into a pond that can help them grow to their full potential but neverthe less they will still be large fish. where are all these fish? multiply this by hundreds breeders.
with all the fish sold i would expect many more large fish at the shows.
i don't think the hobby is growing as fast as the fish. i can only guess that most fish die early.
are there any estimates of how many Koi ponds there are in the US or UK or Japan?
one of my local dealers says he sells 50,000 fish a year!
Carl |