Kohaku judging excercise for fun.

[aquitori]

Let's judge these 3 Kohakus on 3 merits.

1. Conformation (1-10)
2. Skin Quality (1-10)
3. Pattern (1-10)

We all have opinions on what a kohaku is best. Judging these kohakus will give us a general idea what people see.
The point system is simple. 1 Being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

Give points to for each of the 3 merits for each Kohaku and a brief summary why.

Kind of bored with the other topics, so I thought of this.

Click the pic for a better look.

[gknight]

A bit difficult to judge from the photos, so I will not "score" them, but seeing as teh phots are all we have (and the lighting on the photos is even) I'd go A, C, B

[RonC]

I go with A,C,B but I am no judge. I'm still learning all the types....

[B.Scott]

I'm stupid so I'll stick my neck out and tout my ignorance.

A:
9 for comformation. Nice build with a good wide frame
10 for skin. Nice even white with good sashi.
8 for pattern. Nice patteren but a little too broken for my taste esp near the tail root.

C:
7 for confimation. The frame is a bit lighter than A and head could be wider
6 for skin. A bit yellowish
6 for pattern. Hi bleeds a bit behind the shoulder and is a bit too large.

B.
4 for conformation. The frame is too thin and head too narrow.
3 for skin. Head and pecs have a deep yellowish tinge.
7 for pattern A bit better than B but the pattern bleeds on at the dorsel fin. Might dissapear as the fish grows.

Ok aquitori, Now tell us B is a former grand champion LOL
B.Scott

[dick benbow]

Hey Scott!
Had to laugh at your introductory remarks.Especially in light of the
detailed assessment which i thought you did very well.
I have a hard time doing these kinds of exercises because I can't tell so many things that are important to me from photographs. That's why I won't buy a fish that way either. the way a koi carry's itself, the real quality of the beni and shiroji. I had to laugh about your comments
about "B". I have seen a few high end koi like this one with absolutely fabulous beni, not the hard white like "A" but soft, walk away with major prizes in big shows and alot of people fixated on pattern only asking what gives.
I do think these exercises are good as a training tool for pattern and
body shape, so I wanted to thank the author for ther effort to post and give us something fun to 'play with".

[MikeM]

I'm waiting for a punchline on this.

I've seen C on a dealer site, and think I've seen B also. .... Thought price of C was fairly reasonable for a high priced dealer. But, she is a small thing, and I expect is is higher priced because a larger fish. Maybe it's just because I'm thinking there is a punchline, but I'm thinking A may be a male due to size of pecs, with angle of photo giving it more girth than actually exists.

[B.Scott]

Thanks for the kind comments Dick

I agree with both you and Mike. Judging fish from a picture is nothing more than an exersize in which you must make many assumptions. The size of the fish, the angle of the shot and the lighting can all make a big difference to the precieved quality of a fish. It says nothing about the fish itself.

Good fun but not a way to buy/sell fish.

I, like Mike, had a feeling there was a stinger in the tail of this somewhere. Too easy perhaps?

I can remember guarding a vat of fish for a judging competion where Waddy told me the winning order. I would never had guessed it in a million years. The young showa in the vat was one of the ugliest fish I have ever seen yet The Wad deemed it to be a future champion. Go figure.

Judging fish is like betting on horses. I know damn little and would be loath to lose money on them. I tend to perfer to use my judgement in tandem with those that have more experiance than I in the hope that I will buy something I can still be happy with a few years down the line.

My thanks also to Aquitori for the quiz! :wink:
B.Scott

[aquitori]

I just wanted to keep everyone thinking about what this hobby is about and it's the fish. I think everyone focuses too much on filteration and not enough on their picks. All the fish are about the same size but B is the youngest being jumbo tosai. If I had to judge which one is the best it would be in that order. A, B, C at a competiton. But if I were to pick something for future it would be B. But thanks for everyone trying this out.

[MikeM]

So, B was a jumbo tosai competing against 2 year olds. Still can't place where I saw B, but I know C is 15" nisai listed on Eastern Nishikigoi's site.

[l113892]

Judging from photos. I'll just give an order that I'd place the fish with a number.
Conformation A-C-B
Pattern A-B-C
Skin ? (from photo) A has a nice white nose.

Final ranking A-B-C

Mike Pfeffer