[MikeM]

I was traveling recently and had a chance to catch up on some reading. An article in the September, 1997 issue of English Rinko focused on a koi farm begun by Mamoru Kodama in 1993 in Okinawa. Kodama is best known in the West, of course, for the commercial success of Miyoshiike and the books he has published. In the article he explained his thinking behind having a koi farm in subtropical Okinawa:

"In building a farm, one of my top priorities is to choose a place under the best condition. Miyoshiike has a lot of suitable places for breeding koi such as Gifu prefecture, Mie prefecture, or Shizuoka prefecture around Miyoshiike's main shop in Nagoya. But the reason I dared have the koi farm in distant Ishigaki Island, Okinawa is that the island has an important good condition which mainlands of Japan do not have. That is, Ishigaki provides Nishikigoi with the best natural condition that the average temperature through a year is 24C, belonging to a subtropical climate.

"Ancestors of Nishikigoi originally came from Southeast Asia, subtropical zone. They came to Japan by way of China. and has been improved to beautiful koi for years. Though Nishikigoi has been actually improved in Niigata, which has the severest winter in Japan, a mild climate is better for the inherent character of Nishikigoi. The climate of Ishigaki meets Nishikigoi's character. Nishikigoi originally has a constitution to be able to breed three or four times a year. I thought that it should have been possible that same koi can breed several times a year under the climate of Ishigaki. I, therefore, started the farm in Ishigaki 1600 km away from our main shop."

Kodama continues to say that the Ishigaki Koi Farm oyagoi are spawned three times per year. For the first breeding the hatch "is over 95%... But when it comes to the 2nd time, it goes down to 60%, and the 3rd time, 30%." He then explains how he is using his Manda Nishki product to obtain higher hatch rates, but does not say use of the product actually worked.

I found this article interesting for several reasons. Kodama challenges the idea of Nishikigoi being a four season fish, but then gives data negating his proposition. I'd not heard of Ishigaki Koi Farm and certainly am not aware of it being known for producing quality koi. It seems the locale best fit the purpose of maximizing production, but Kodama goes on to say that culling is very strict with only 2,000 pieces kept out of 100,000-200,000 fry at the first culling, and only 70-100 females kept to be nisai, which he says are typically 60cm when harvested in October.

I am thinking this article is more commercial promotion than it purports to be. However, I'm posting this excerpt for whatever worth it may have in the theme of this thread. I think it amounts to no more than what was long ago discovered in Florida. A warm climate allows for high production and growth rates.