Asagi Breeding 2004

[dick benbow]

Mike,
Good question. I can tell you honestly....i don't know. I have never been able to isolate individual fish to learn what they do. so many times I'll see a pattern I love and get all excited about it only to never find it again at next cull. Did it change, did it die? I don't know?
That kuro kuchi is a cute rascal, caught my eye too!

[Cyberkoi]

Hi Dick,

I read you are an Asagi-Fan.

Do you own such a reverse pattern Asagi?



I couldn't find such a Asagi in Germany, but I maybe will make a trip to Japan in spring 05.


Greetz Nico

[estanque_koi]

Quote: Originally Posted by JasonS Here are the photos.

:?

can you have a look at these fry? It's just the last cull of "black" fry I have carried out.
They look pretty much like yours, but the bloodline is of course different and I know for sure they won't become Sanke. Some of their siblings already have a clear "wannabe" Sanke pattern (patches of dark grey or even sumi showing up, and patches of orange increasing their intensity each week, all of that over a whitish background.
I wish I had no more than 10% of these blacks instead of roughly 40 to 50 %!
Cheers,
Diego Jordano
Cordoba, España
pers. Web Koi and ponds http://es.geocities.com/estanqueskois/
Web Spanish Koi Keeper's Society http://www.elkoi.com
E_mail: estanque_koi@yahoo.es
E-mail:djordano@wanadoo.es

[dick benbow]

Hi Greetz!

Pretty asagi pic you posted! Otsuka breeds such koi and I'm hopeful that Brian will do an article on him and his asagi's. My male breeder is reverse
and mama is narumi. she hopefully will have some babies like dad! They are hard to find! Ray able in ther USA always brings back a few Premier
ones each year.

[dick benbow]

Greetings Diego!
They look like sanke babies to me! When you say from the last cull you mean these were the ones you saved right?
Now comes the hardest part, waiting for them to get up around 3-4 inches so you can see the kohaku pattern.
I had some business out at the farm last night and checked on the babies. My sanke's are a week or so ahead of yours so they're loosing the heavy black bodies and not showing much of a yellow pattern, but it's coming!
The kohaku babies are growing like mad. I picked up a new female breeder for next year from sakai-hiroshima.
The apple of my eye are the asagi's but so many are red! The best thing going right now are the shiro utsuri's and the showas. They're bulking up right now and look good. the newest, the ochiba's are up to maybe 1/2 an inch!
We've been feeding them frozen blood worms and they love em!
Well good luck with your baby sanke's. I hope you get some with nice kohaku patterns in the next few months! Be sure and keep us informed with photos!

[estanque_koi]

Hello Dick,
no, these dark/black fry are to be discarded. Last year I had a full lot of these and believe me, no one was sanke.
The fry in the picture went to a large pond in the University Campus, right now I finished to catch some 20 or 30 that were thriving in the biofilter, and I believe there are no more than 10 or 15 "blacks" remaining in the breeding pond. I think my "dark/black" fry are somehow different from your fry. Mine have solid dark or black from head to tail, some have light yellow or orange front or head.
As I told you, I'm keeping other fry that I believe are more valuable since there is no doubt they are going to be sanke. I can see the colors and pattern quite clear. There are a few of tancho sanke, and some others seem to be developing as kohaku, although there are quite many orange fry that are different and I bet will remain orange. The largest are around 6 or 7 cm in length (2.4 to 2.7 inches).
I'll try to get some pictures of the fry that I think might be worth to keep. Of course I'm not an expert, maybe those that currently look nicer will fade away and some of the ugly fry might turn to be wonderful Koi in the future, who knows!
All the best,
Diego

[dick benbow]

Interesting...keep us informed! Thanks

[Maurice]

Having just spent the last 3 days culling a sanke spawn (it would have gone into 4, if it were not for Mike Snaden joining me for the last few hours) I can appreciate the lengths the Japanese breeders go to in achieving such high quality sanke.
Out of a spawn the number of true sanke looking fry are so small.

I only pulled the seine net through the pond once, as when I saw the numbers, I knew if I pulled any more up I would never get through them! I see now why the growth rate has been so slow. I thought the pond contained around a hundred thousand, but with one pull through the pond I had more than 200,000 thousand for sure and I estimate I missed a third of them!

Most are only an 1” in length and hard to cull at that size. I used a 3 gallon bucket for the culls and filled it twice. After all that I ended up with 3,000 keepers and at least half of those will go on the next cull.

Below is a couple of tobies with the looks of sanke about them.
Maurice.

[jacovors]

Hi Maurice,
Thanks for the update. I would be more than happy with that quality at this age.
How many males did you use in this spawning and was only one female used?
If at all possible do you have any pics of them?I checked you're site and see no update have been posted on the 2004 breeding as yet.
Thanks
Jaco

[dick benbow]

Hi Maurice,
Thanks for posting your sanke fry. that is the next step up for culling....looking for the kohaku pattern. for those here learning rememebr this....the ones that have a really nice pattern now will be underwhelming when they grow up as the pattern will ride up and become small in comparison to the swelling bodies. what you want is a very heavy
pattern that doesn't look good at this stage. it's like a good meal....big enough to stick with you for awhile...don't worry about the placement of black now, just the quality.
Maurice tell MS that if he could make it over to the blueberry farm, he could eat his fill while he helps me cull as well! just kidding.....Sure wish we diddn't have a pond between us! I could come over and help you, then you could return the favor/ kinda like wheat farmers in america at harvest time!