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While we wait for Dan to get the picture up maybe we talk about how we all used to look at koi, koi growth and koi age and how we look at it now that we have all been exposed to good koi for a few decades now--
We used to see baby koi as just 'little' koi and adult koi are just larger versions of the 'little ones'. The best fish were the most brightly colored ones and all unfinished fish were looked at tategoi. So it was natural to look at babies and contemplate what they would look like as they got bigger and the 'fuzzy areas' filled in. And if they were very brightly colored as babies then they would likely look like the grand champions in the magazines when they got bigger.
Today we know that koi come in grades. The beginner might hear the terms ' tategoi and tateshita'. This also deceives however as it suggests that fish fall on either side of an imaginary line as fish get bigger.
In truth, all koi have a moment in the sun where they will never look better. Some fish finish as youngsters and others take 8 years to complete the look the former took only 10 months of life to achieve.
All koi are therefore the 'cut flower' that grew to a bloom and at some point in time begins to wilt and fade.
This is why each koi should be looked at for what it is and also for the what it offers in way of satifying the plan the pond owner has for it. For showing some koi are best competitors at age one. Others should not be at a show for many years. These legendary koi called tategoi, 'suffer' from a form of arrested development and will not show their best until they are full adults and all the elements of quality have had an opportunity to bloom. This is the opposite of hot highly colorful and well patterned male fish that typically are killer show fish until age 3 or so.
I posted this graph on KS under ' so you want to be a koi judge' to show how the shifting focus of show fish moves based on age, sex and size. If you can get familiar with this concept you are not likely to look at tosai the same again. And the notion of linear development will leave your mind's eye. - JR
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