[Sangreaal]

Thanks for your priceless education on pearl, or rather tamagin history and development, JR. I relish every scrap of information I can glean on this subject (and everything koi! ). I want to understand what it is that I have.

Ayup, Don. It's probably pic time. Mostly because I finally, out of literally thousands of pics taken, have an image of the Tigerlily with her lights on, and a very few of a tosai Kohaku from the same line with the same scale type. I'll share the Tigerlily first.

Here she is, just your basic kohaku at liberty in the pond:

You can see a few glints of gin near her dorsal, but look at the top of each scale--there's a little dull pewter dot.

Now she turns...

...and the lights start twinkling.

Here is a close up:


And another as the Matsunosuke gin kicks in:



When the tamagin is lit up, the Matsunosuke gin is not. When the Matsunosuke gin is lit, the tamagin is dark. It all depends on angle and lighting--one follows the other.

I'll dig up some pics of the younger kohaku. The effect does seem more pronounced in the smaller fish...

Marie