| Marie: There have been a couple of great threads on bloodlines on some of the boards. I wish I had saved them. It does become confusing because the term "bloodline" gets used in several ways. When used in the most commonly intended manner, it is really a reference to the keito a particular breeder has. "Keito" is sometimes defined as a "brand", but the meaning is deeper. It refers to the mix of genetics a breeder has brought together to produce a particular line. Some of the larger breeders have more than one keito, and some are at the point that they refer to their lines by reference to the female parent alone (as if it did not matter so much which male fertilized the particular egg, when actually they spend as much or more effort finding the right males as finding the females!).
In another sense, "bloodline" refers to genetic lines. There are not very many true genetic bloodlines, and these have been interbred to the point that finding a pureblood is neigh on impossible. You'll see references to Sensuke or Yagoyen, etc. Brady Brandwood has observed that these references are mainly useful to communicate that certain traits in a koi are like the trait in a certain old bloodline. So, if someone refers to Sensuke Hi, folks can kinda know what is meant... although you'll not likely ever see a pure Sensuke.
It gets more confusing when you realize that a lot of keitos are derived from the same bloodline. For example, virtually all of the top Sanke breeders are dependent on Matsunosuke genetics. Those genes have been mixed with every sort of Kohaku Hi to get "improvement", and back to older lines of Sanke. But then in culling, the breeders select for the koi with Matsunosuke conformation, size, etc. So, the Sanke may be known as the bloodline of a particular breeder, but is derived from the bloodline of Matsunosuke. In a sense, even the Matsunosuke bloodline no longer exists, since the original fish to whom the name was given are gone and the Sakai brothers have used other bloodlines in continually improving what they produce. So, what is produced by Matsunosuke today is not what was produced under that name in the past.
Confused? Just remember that nothing about koi genetics is static. All the breeders are seeking to produce koi better than those that ever existed. And, as a group, they are succeeding. Every year there is progress in quality improvements. Select the koi you enjoy and appreciate the fact so many have worked so hard for generations to allow you the pleasure of having it. |