My nisai kohaku at Momotaro one growing season on.

[Maurice]

As many will remember, at the March auction at Momotaro I was lucky enough to purchase a jumbo tosai kohaku. The photo and size on it's certificate (given with higher quality Momotaro koi) was taken 16th Feb, with the size at 44cm. Come the auction 28th March it had grown to 49cm. At that time along with one other the same size was the biggest in the auction.

I had attended the auction with one view in mind, to buy the koi that I felt in my eye would grow into the best parent koi prospect. On picking the koi prior to the auction I showed Daisuke Maeda, he was pleased I had picked that koi, but was afraid it would be too expensive for me. Anyway I got lucky pushed the limit a little and it was mine. After the auction, Mr Maeda said he thought he could grow it to 90cm, I'm hoping so.

These tosai, sold in the spring are guaranteed female and if any turned out male they would be replaced. Off they went to the mud pond for summer but things did not go according to plan in the pond , a male or two had slipped through the checking. Remember these were only 12 months old, my female being one of the very biggest, was also one of the maturest, there was a huge spawning in the pond. They place cat fish in the ponds, just in case of this happening, so as many eggs as possible would be eaten.

Anyway, either the cat fish did not do a very good job or the shear number of eggs was too many, but come harvest time thousands of fry were caught, enough to fill a large one meter bowl to the top.

Most koi in the pond still grew well, even though the food had to be split between many more koi than was planned. My female grew 11cm, much less than many, but it is my experience that females which have spawned in a season loose out on growth that season, as they spend most the time replacing lost eggs.

She had grown from 49cm to 60cm, but I must admit, I was hoping for nearer 70cm. Only time will tell if she will catch up those lost centimeters, but she will stay at Momotaro for another 2 years.



In the pond she living in for the winter, she has by far the whitest skin of all.






Maurice.

[swordfish]

That's a very beautiful fair lady Maurice. The picture on the right seem to be having lesser body volume. Did you took it after she spawned?

SF

[James P]

Maurice, thank you. This is very educational. Even from pictures!

I have one question.
The first picture shows a deeper type beni. In my limited experience, darker beni tends to stay the same color or darken at age 5 or 6. The only expection I have seen is in some Hiroshima bred sanke. In your fish, the second photo shows a lighter color than the first. Almost a red/red beni turning to an orange/orange beni?
Is this the photo/lighting etc.? Or is this a true transformation as we sometimes see in Sakai Hiroshima fish?

JR

[Maurice]

Jim, both pictures are a little out, the first and second were not taken with the same camera. The beni is a little dark in the first and the second has a glare over the water softening the beni a little.
Please give your opinion of this koi. Your thoughts are valued.

To give some idea of the volume this koi had over most of the others, here is a photo of one batch of auction koi, all from the same spawn, my kohaku is just coming into shot, bottom, second left.
I think you can see from this photo, Momotaro are not ignoring quality and pattern over size, all koi through the auction were over 40cm and 11 months old.



I think the true colour can be seen.
Maurice..

[Maurice]

Swordfish, yes the photo was taken just a few days after harvest, she had spawned in the mud pond through the summer sometime.
Maurice.

[Bob Hart]

Maurice,

I presume once the pond was netted, they were able to identify the males? Would Maeda be able to learn from this later identification, how they got it so wrong?
Very interesting story by the way.

[James P]

Maurice, I recently had a chance to see a momotaro ( actually the one that we saw together in the new fish house that day we met up) after one year in a USA pond. It was along side of a matsunosuke ( Isawa) and Iggy Kazuto fish ( dainichi/sen). It was very interesting seeing the very different beni types on the different combinations of lineage. I'll post a picture when I get home.

Your koi is similar to that momotaro of QKs. It doesn't have the classic stars of Sakai Isawa's fish. But the beni is strong and soft- very nice. And the shiroji is unbelievable! I also really like the bone structure- obviously a growing fish. Its a shame she spawned!
I would have been a little hesitant about buying a jumbo tosai/nisai with a limited pattern. The concern being that the pattern could not keep up with the growth rate and either look small or actuallt break up with explosive growth. But obviously this is not a valid concern as the pattern 'fits' as well now as it did when you bought her. And the sashi says " the beni is deep and therefore uniform in the plate.
Honestly Maurice I think you have a very impressive tategoi. The next step- volume. I think that will transform this fish dramatically. JR

[Mike Snaden]

Look carefully at Maurice's vat shot. The following Koi are in that Tosai pic from March this year.

This Koi measures 58cm now. Belongs to Stuart, from this board.
Second Koi is 55cm, and sold just a couple of months ago.
Third Koi is now 57cm (also sold).

Mike.

[Maurice]

Bob, sexing 11 month old koi is not written in stone. Traditionally year old koi have been around 10cm going out to the mud pond and sexing was not possible until their second harvest. Size and maturity wise, these koi are advanced a year over the traditional year old babies.

Maurice.

[dtbh]

Dear Maurice

You have a great tategoi there. It is a pity she spawned and we will never know what she would have been in terms of size. Please keep us updated on her development.

I am curious to know how soon after she spawned she was netted and measured. I may be wrong but looking at the photo she could not have spawned too long ago and if so, the spawning would not have affected the growth (in length) too much. What is the average size for this batch of jumbo tosai?

Thanks.