| Maybe or Maybe Not
Selecting parent koi is not as easy as you might think. Buy recent same variety GC female and GC male koi and breed them and it is very likely the majority of the time you get nothing but a bunch of junk. Many, many GC's of All Japan Shows have been a bust as breeders.
Proven breeders are often older koi past their prime as show koi. SOme have lost most or all of their color. Breeding is very stressful and many koi are lost each year due to the stress of breeding. Many proven parent koi were never show koi because of a injury or poor pattern but they throw some awesome babies. Breeders test breed koi in various combinations for years and even life times before a magic pairing is found. You can't judge a book by it's cover so to speak. When you go to Japan and ask to see parent koi you are often told they are in another location. Those I have seen are rarely a great advertisment for selling their babies. Of course some breeder websites show photos of parent koi as a way to market their products. Of course these show the parent koi in their prime. Often these photo are very old but still show what the koi looked like at their best.
T. Sakai sankes of the orginal Matusonuke bloodlines frequently show 20 or so gin rin scales on each side. This is considered highly desirable for this bloodline and an indicator of refined quality. These koi are not considered Gin Rin and shouldn't be as to be classified as Gin Rin ther needs to be three full rows of GR on each side.
Yes, there are some famous breeders with some pairings that have very pretty babies that rarely develop into beautiful adults. Most koi are sold as tosai so it is hard to blame a breeder for breeding these parent koi year after year. this is why you should never be overly swayed by any single breeder. The top breeders in Japan still produce many more ordinary than exceptional koi. Buy the koi not the breeder. |