| Here is a fact, Koi are inderminate growers. Or at least some lines are. This is a scientific argument and is still not resolved as to whether koi are determinate growers vs indeterminate growers or actual indeterminate growers but just slow dramatically as they age.
Personally, I suspect that they are indeterminate growers given the right diet and conditions. But growth is defined in many ways and not just length.
a larvae 'grows' in organ development and mass. A fry grows in length and then mass. A juvenile koi will grow in length. A sexually mature koi will grow in mass due to reproductive organ growth. And koi can increase size of existing muscle mass and/or they can also add new muscle mass . So there are many kinds of growth.
I have a friend who owns a VERY expensive Dainichi Kohaku. The fish was pegged to be a contender at the highest levels in the National Japanese shows. She is a MONSTER in length! But she ( and she is a 'she') has never acquired the girth to compete at THE SHOW. So each year she is pampered and let go into adult mud ponds and each fall she is harvested a little longer but no fuller. It is her natural body type, unfortunately. She is the ultimate tategoi- promising the full package but never quite getting the right look. In her case it is the volume that is forever missing- the kiss of death in the jumbo catagory. She is now 10.
- JR |