| Hoppy,
when looking in mags of past japanese shows I have seen alot of similarities in the patterns of the higher placed participants..... this could be due to judges' preferences, but a judge can only choose from what hobbyists enter in the show, yet Hobbyist can only choose from what they have purchased already (unless they want to just buy the trophy straight up...which is much more honest in some cases), and the hobbyists can only purchase what the breeders/dealers have offered, and the breeders can only offer from what they have saved after culling, and FINALLY the breeders can only choose from what patterns the koi have thrown.
For those that have it...look on page 66 & 67 of K2K, especially the three on page 66...Shintaro gosanke...now look at the patterns...especially the hi on the heads...and the front edge of that hi...there were 100,000's of fry to choose from, but these were THERE at they beginning and eventually chosen to carry forward by the breeder.
All aspects of a koi have a genetic base..it is the genes that have to interact and react to the environment.
(side bar not to be discussed here ,,i will start another thread to deal with it but....... I have heard that koi patterns will be different than the donor koi in cloned koi... I have given this thought, and can only figure that the pattern is determined from some environmental stimulation while the koi is in the egg....remember this is another issue and I will start a new thread) |