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OK Dan, we can wait a week. I'll keep reminding you if that's OK. I think it's important that if you have a strong exception to the rule that we discuss its unique qualities. I suspect that fish is a male however and that's fine as it can illustrate that a fish like this is on a different time line of development than say a tategoi female.
I also wanted to point out that male fish although not as large as females at 40 months can have pleasing conformation for male fish. This fish had a broad male conformation and some might have thought it was female based on the bone structure. Seeing a picture now would likely confirm the sex for sure? Do you still think the fish is female? The young sumi seems to suggest it is a male.
I had asked you to cut and paste a line or two from one of my earlier posts. It is from post # 68 and I said in that post---
"Tosai are an education as what not to buy and why. In this regard they are educational and worthwhile in terms of practice. Excluded from these comments would be the hot colorful well patterned male tosai that will 'kick peduncle' at any koi show in size 1,2,3. In this case, you can buy a male early and tighten up the sumi or beni for the perfect moment for show competition."
PPP you and a few others seem to have gotten sensitive on the subject? And it is not my intention to ruin anyones fun with koi! But as a result, you seem to be taking offense at something I never said?
-- the original suggestion was that a shape eye and a little education could allow one to select out the diamond from the lumps of coal. That is fun but totally unrealistic. There is no question that you can avoid obvious shiro muji candidates, deformities and unbalanced patterns with a little education. And it is possible to have a reasonably nice adult fish from a tosai choice. But that is not what was creeping into this thread. What was creeping into this thread was the idea that you could acquire information that would allow you to find the one they 'missed at the factory'! I was simply providing some perspective to that. You can not cheat the system.
Quite often the hyped tosai is a living example of the ' emperor with no clothes'. They are beautiful cut flowers to be admired and enjoyed. I like buying such fish from time to time. But they are expensive in that they cost more than other tosai yet they have a short shelf life, making then very expensive in terms of days of enjoyment per dollar. A sansai might cost $1500 and improve and last 5 more years. Making that cost of enjoyment something like $0.82 a day. A very flashy tosai might cost $ 500 and have a past sell date of only 12 months making that cost per day of enjoyment $ 1.36 a day- actually a more expensive fish but a shorter time of beauty and enjoyment. Something to think about? JR
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