looking to chat with an asagi crazed hobbiest

[sundan]

Hey Dick,

How about these asagi's?? Do ginrin asagi hold up well when they get older? Like to get one.

[JasonS]

There are better asagi out there. Wait for the next bunch.

A fellow club member has this GORGEOUS gin rin asagi. It is holding up very well so far.

[Mike T]

Hey Guys:

What qualities would an Asagi have to have to be one of the best Asagi's... What would the price ranges of "The Best of the Best", "Excellent", "Very Good" and "Good" be?... Would be great if someone could post some pics of each... Also if looking at Tosai, what should one look for, how about a Nisai, Sansai etc...

Dick, I may be getting the bug...get that room ready...

Aloha, Mike T

[JasonS]

I think the list price on mine was $75. A bit on the expensive side for a tosai asagi, IMHO. But it was tossed in as a 'freebie' when the original owner bought a fish that cost over 10 times that.

Pix here: http://www.koi-bito.com/forum/showpo...1&postcount=13

[dick benbow]

Thanks for the posting, pics and comments. This is great!

Iwashita has great Gin rin. If I were buying one that would be the breeder I would select for my GR asagi.

Pricing wise a good asagi is as expensive as a good anything. The cheepest I ever saw a good asagi three year old was about $6.000. What's good to me and good to you could be quite varied because of the time and study I have put into this. I would say from a breeders standpoint I wouldn't sell a good asagi at tosai
but would hang on to until they are atleast three. Some times you can get decent two year olds that are close. They usually run $2.000. to $3,000. In japan when a hobbyist wants to find a decent one amongst the tosai they select 6 and grow them on. usually one will come up as respectable.

Hints for keeping: they do not do well in water that favorors gosanke. You want less hardness and soft ph. Under 100 for hardness (no more than 120 )
and ph around 7.0 to 7.2.

when you buy tosai, you want to look for white nose, red on pecs about 20-30% in close to the body. You roll the baby over and check the under side.
a white belly, with red showing along the sides at the lowest belly line you can get. the least amount showing on the sides, is best. Red comes up over the next two years. Weakest area is around tail. If the red is heaviest along the belly and already up to the lateral line at the base of the tail, it will over run in the back.


Do not feed color food to these koi if your intent on rearing a good one. Most hobbyists like to have one with a group of other koi so you may have to compromise thier different needs and try and allign in the middle.

Anything I have left out follow up with questions please!

[swordfish]

1st picture is an Asagi from a local hobbyist. 2nd pic is from a dealer I frequent. Both are nisai.
I reckon the one on the right from the 2nd pic will have more potential to develop into a very beautiful Asagi without the body color being too deep.

SF

[dick benbow]

The one on the right appears to me to be female. The lower one in the middle
looks to develop a nice clean head. see the nice white nose on that middle one with grey forhead? this is typical and at three chances are good the grey will
dissolve into a nice bright white like the nose.

BTW the one on the left by itself looks more like 3 to me than 2.

did you dealer know who bred them?

[swordfish]

Heard its from Hosokai san sometime back. All 3 going at US$500/- each. Sometime he also bring in top tosai about 20cm that cost as much as US$3000/- from Hoshikin. I wouldn't pay this amount for a tosai though some hobbyist snatch them up almost in an instance.

SF

[JasonS]

My goodness that IS a very nice asagi. $500 is a reasonable price for that quality. Not a great price, but not $2000 either.

I would rate it excellent, while my own would be merely good. Mine would rate a 7 overall while that middle asagi with the very clean head would be a 9.

The price difference does reflect that too.

[swordfish]

Yes Dick I have check with the owner of that Asagi. He have with him for about 2 years & bought it when it was 19 months old. It was my mistake.
So far I have only come across nisai Asagi being imported but never tosai. If there is a tosai Asagi in one of my dealers it is locally born & only cost US$10-$15/- each.

SF