Kohaku Babies. Advice on culling needed

[dtbh]

Dear guys

Attempted to breed for fun on 31st of August last year and the babies hatched on September 4th. Used a Sakai Rose female and a Hoshikin male.

Finally got myself to take some photos and I would like to share them with you all. Feel free to "shoot" at will with your comments and thanks in advance whatever they may be.

Baby 1 is now 22cm.
Baby 2 is 29cm.
Baby 3 is 28cm.
Baby 4 is 27cm.
Baby 5 is 31cm.
Baby 6 is 27cm.
And Baby 7 is 27cm.

I have only kept these 7 for lack of pond space. My question is, if I have to cull strictly, what should I keep and what should be discarded? I have asked this question because I have been informed that I was supposed to keep the smaller and slower growing kois instead of this batch of faster growing ones. Thanks.

[bekko]

I would keep all of those. Build a new pond.


steve hopkins

[JasonS]

The only danger to keeping the faster growing ones might be that males traditionally grow faster than females. But I'm not sure that's true anymore...

Regarding the ones to possibly toss... I refer you to the excellent articles in the last couple issues of Koi-Bito. I still need to read the current tosai article a few more times before I think I'll really understand -- there is just so much information in there.

If I had to choose three for myself, I'd choose: 1, 2, and 6. #1 is the clear keeper in my opinion.

[dick benbow]

I don't know how much you have to cut to accomodate your space.
If you can I suggest you keep #'s 2,3,4,5 and off 1,6 & 7.
If you must cull deeper i suggest 3 and 5 are keepers for sure.

Don't be too uptight about size at this stage. judge on the thickness of the beni
and the clean edges of the kiwa. Sashi should be no deeper than a scale and a half. One i said to off has too small a pattern and another has a suspect red pattern that i don't believe will hold as it gets older.

[Dan Blatt]

All relatively nice...but like Jason, I like #1 the best. Would be interesting to see how it turns out.

[JasonS]

I bow to Dick's expertise in this matter; I suspect he is talking about #1 when referring to one having 'too small a pattern'. But I still like the looks of it.

It is 9 inches already! That's pretty good sized, and I'd like to hear more about why it would go in the batch to be culled? If I had to make a guess, it is because of the smaller bits of hi -- those traditionally don't get better. And the edges could be sharper.

The others I mainly crossed off because of yellow heads. However, the color could thicken up and maybe the shiroji will improve?

[Tom C]

Cull them all to me.

I have to say you did a hell of a good job at breeding.

For me 7 and 6 would be the first to go. Then I would have to say 4 would be next. Then number 2. I would love to see better pictures of 1, 3, and 5. These koi I seem to like the most of them all. But all of them are not bad.

Tom

[bekko]

I too remember hearing that you should keep the slower gowing kohaku - but that was a few years years ago. Don't remember hearing that suggestion since the jumbo fad started. Dick, do you have any comments on this? For me, if it looks good I would keep it for a while regardless of size.

steve hopkins

[MikeM]

Not sure which goes with which number. I agree with those saying to grow them all a bit more, but if I had to eliminate a few it would be the ones with the heavy red heads. At this size I've found that my eye prefers a more elongated body shape, but a disproportionate number turn out male. The ones with a "stubby" look caused by having wider shoulders do not appeal to me, but often turn out to be female. So, I've learned in picking tosai that I cannot choose based on my first impression of what I like. Having to think in terms of future size, etc requires fighting against today's impression. Dick's suggestion of selecting on the basis of beni is a good one I think.

[Bedskoi]

dtbh


IF you are getting rid of some i need some pond fillers for my new pond.???


cheeky i know


bedskoi