Sakai Showa

[wtansk]

I purchased a sakai at a very low price. It is 7" with good body shape but lacking of hi in the centre of body. I purchased it as I believe the sumi location will compensate for the lack of hi. So I did some painting on the picture to have a idea how the showa will look if the sumi appear.

Any comment? Do you think the sumi will appear as where I want it to be?

[dick benbow]

Murphy's law is that " the sumi will appear where it wants to" without regard to your personal tastes! (lol)

Some things to help you learn:

Black is always strongest at the tail end of the koi. The fact that you have good black indicators on the nose head and shoulder. is positive. The black along the base of the dorsal also indicates a strong black to make an appearance. Another good indicator is to roll the fish over (or put in a plastic bag) to view the bottom fins. black in the anal and ventral fins also indicate the presents of black. clear ones would indicate the opposite.

I don't think your concern will be black on this koi. Red is always the weakest link in a showa that indicates strong black. the two colors are opposing. It is very difficult to find a showa with red,black and white at it's very best. These koi are never sold as tosai but raised to grow on in both length,quality and market value.

my advice here would be not to push the koi's growth to push past the hiban. Keep the ph in the mid or lower 7's. ( no 8's!) Keep your water hardness up to about 200 on the GH scale. if the koi is in a liner pond
you can add a fresh cement brick or two in the waterway to add minerals
to help bring out a strong black.

part of the fun of your project will be to take pictures as the black develops so you can record and remember what you learned. Males will develop faster than females and some females I know are at least 8 years out. the picture on my thread is of a kindai showa that looks for all the world as a sanke. she is 5 now and some black is just now coming in mid-body as it works it's way forward. Yes patience is a virtue with showa!

[RayJordan]

The best advice I ever received when buying Shoaw or Sanke is to "Buy the Red and Bet on the Black and White." Bob Spindola, a dear departed koi teacher, used to emphaisize in his koi buying seminars to select Showas and Sankes with a nice strong kohaku pattern and very strong even hiban. Weak or lack of Hiban pattern is rarely improved by the random developent and placement of Sumi. Unless it does!!

Showas are the hardest koi to predict - even by their breeders. I was once at igiroshi Kazuto and saw a really nice three year old Showa. I asked about it and was told a big mistake. He explained he made a mistake and thought it had a poor future and sold as baby koi cheap. He shook his head and said Showas make you dumber. He bought it back for many many times more than he sold it for to try and learn not to make many mistakes like that again.

I hope your Showa is also an exception and it makes you feel smarter.

[wtansk]

Thanks for the comment.

Yes, I knew the need to select good kohaku pattern. On this case, I was trying my luck on the sumi. The hi is lacking. But from the skin, I am guessing that the sumi will appear nicely on the body. Hopefully my guess is correct. Hope this is a learning lesson for me on the sumi grow.

Thanks