Another curve ball to toss in the mix is the fact that unless I'm mistaken the SPKC fish were all grown together in the same water and food. At least thats how most of the growouts among that group have been handled in the past.
The guys over there love growout competitions that are a pure "selection skill" challenge, and I've followed several of their previous growouts over the past few years with great interest. Since the Koi are all held/fed together by the dealer the husbandry and growing conditions are equal, and only the eye of each contestant is put to the test. Viewing their fish gives us a true idea of what the fish are capable of in "laboratory conditions" with year round feeding in a tropical climate.
We have the added challenge of putting our husbandry skills, general water conditions, feeding regime, climates, etc... to the test. Their results are wildly varied, so just imagine what ours will be like
