Where have the Kujaku gone?

[Alex Gibbs]

Maybe its just me, but I have seen only one good kujaku since last october. Was last years kujaku spawning especially bad? Maybe they are still holding them in Japan, but I am dissappointed at what I have seen so far. Does anyone know where all the good kujakus went? :?:

Best Regards,
Alex Gibbs

[dick benbow]

Alex,
The only time I have ever seen good ones were in Japan. both were
the red variety and quite expensive. I can't honestly say i've seen anything good that comes into dealers as of late.
But like all things, they do have crop failures! hang in there and be patient. about the time you give up and move on to something else there will be a glut of them!

[matt]

actually, i saw many of the best young kujaku i have ever seen last october durring harvest in Ojiya.

I spent one day traveling to a number of breeders with Ray Abel of nishikigoi of niigata, a big importer to the states. We saw a lot of nice red nisai kujaku.

Until last fall, i was too felt that there were not a lot of good ones around, most i saw were orange, ... but last year was a different story.

Sakazume had some great ones and another breeder, whose name i am having a mental block on this morning (i think it was Hirasawa), had amazing reds. I know Ray bought and took home many from those breeders and more, you may want to check his stock, and pay attention to these breeders next harvest too. I will try to confirm if it is Hirasawa or not that had my favorittes, i really need to check up that as i have one in my pond. Hope to visit that breeder next month when i am there for the wakagoi to see his tosai.

[l113892]

Matt-

If it was Hirasawa, it could have been Hirasawa(Mausei Yorijo) or Hirasawa(Hirashin Yorijo) as both do produce Kujaku.

Mike

[matt]

a name with an M rings a bell, so i think it may be Mausei , ... been too busy this week to confrim this.

if you know where Mausei`s place is you may be able to help me confirm ... the breeder in question is in a neighborhood that is off to the right from the road to yamakoshi (as you drive up from ojiya, past Torazo and Isa et al.)

anyways, its a nice fish, biggest in my pond of young fish, they just started feeding a couple weeks ago, and this morning, just a bout 15 minutes ago, before i left for work, he was leading the pack up to the surface to suck down the weat germ pellets.

Stands out incredibly, as while i think many of my other fish are nice, they are almost all budo-goromo and light coloured asagi. so the metalic red and silver makes a big impression.

[Alex Gibbs]

Thank you matt and Dick, I guess when I look for kujaku parent fish I will have to make the trip over to Japan to find what i want. Another question, do you guys know if any of the kujaku breeders have mixed in kohaku with their kujaku spawnings? If so were the results good?

Best Regards,
Alex Gibbs

[mapleman]

Hi ,Alex.If you are looking for kujaku, i was at a breeder called Kaneko.In febuary i was able to buy afew nice kujaku`s and gosanke from him,if you are traveling to japan ,he is worth a visit.
He breeds very good red kujaku and other varieties .He is located further
up the hill from torazo,danichi and hirasawa.

[dick benbow]

alex,
I don't know what was used to get the red kujaku. I would rather doubt
you would use kohaku directly. my quess would be more that they bred
kohaku and platinum together and then took that cross into the orange kujaku. with metalics, the sheen is so important, that i would quess you'd want to get that coming in genetically from both sides. but it's strictly conjecture on my part.

[Alex Gibbs]

Dick,
Thats what I was thinking about the genetics of the red kujaku, I guess it would be a waste to reintroduce kohaku genetics in (if they were in before) with there already being so many red kujaku out there. You would probably be able to improve red faster by just using those kujaku instead of introducing kohaku.

Best Regards,
Alex Gibbs

[dick benbow]

Alex,
Sunday I went to Pacific Koi a wholesaler of Japanese koi in Washington state. He had just gotten half a dozen boxes in from iwashita and wanted my opinion on them. took one look and thought of you. you can add this breeder to the names who produce nice red and orange kujaku!