Judge these Asagi..

[ChrisC]

Well the clear head sure looks cleaner. With such a classical looking fish (if that makes any sense) I could imagine that change in the standard would take a very long time.

Mike M--you allude to your water not being suitable. Can I infer that it is too hard? Do Asagi get "spotty" as a result?

Sorry to plague you all with my newbie questions, but I think you have all learned through trial and error, and I'd like to benefit from your experience. Who knew there are BLUE fish?

[RayJordan]

For today B would be the winner



B: Good Conformation, Very nice clean head, strong reticulation, very nice placement of hi.



A: Good Conformation, Slightly yellow head, even but unfinished reticulation, weaker immature hi. This might be a Asagi to buy for the future.



C: Reverse asagi. Difficult to judge. Some discussion of placement in Kawarigoi as it’s reticulation is reversed and places it at a disadvantage in shows. Good conformation. Strong Hi pattern and quality. Small hi marking on head isn’t a big distraction or plus. This koi will likelu get darker and hi will spread to far. Biggest risk for future – maybe?

[MikeM]

Ray: Did your letters get confused?

[dick benbow]

Aquitori, any chance you could rustle up some shusui pics for a challenge?

[soelistyo]

i'm not a very big fan of shusuis but decided to give this one a shot. first shusui i've purchased in a decade. do other people think that shusuis have a "wilder" personality compared to most other koi?

sorry this is only a tosai of 25cm so i don't know if you can tell much from this pic. unfortunately i think it's probably a male fish.

maybe you can give me some pointers about the fish, Dick, as i have little idea on selecting shusuis.

[MikeM]

ChrisC: Overlooked your question .... yes, I meant too hard. Check out the thread on issue #8 about Asagi. DickB provides quite a bit of information from his years of cultivating Asagi.

[MikeM]

Soelistyo: We need Dick to give you his views. He very much enjoys Shusui. On the other hand, I believe Shusui is one of the most difficult breeds of all. They suffer all the potential problems of Asagi, and then their Doitsu character adds more opportunities to fail. Finding one without a distracting weakness is very unusual. Even among the prize winners I see in pics from Japanese shows, there is seldom one that does not have some fault that just glares at me. And, of all the faults, one that is common is for the dorsal scales to be of uneven size, or to have vacant spaces along the back, or in the area near the head; or to have multiple scales converging at a spot, instead of a single perfect row from back of the head to dorsal fin, with evenly matched scales marching in line along each side of the dorsal until rejoining as a single file procession from the rear of the dorsal to the caudal fin. And, so often the scales will vary in color so that they appear uneven when they are actually fairly similar in size and orderly in arrangement along the back. I become quite fixated on the scales along the back. ....Which brings me to point out that there is a nice even quality about the scales along the back of your Shusui, although I see spots where the scales seem to be doubling up, etc., in the main it looks fairly decent. It is hard for me to say for sure from the photo. Still, it did not make me grimace! (And, that's a compliment.) ...Kept my interest enough so I wanted to look at the blue. The shadows on the head will clear, the fish is very young still. We need DickB to comment on the yellow. ... But, the speckles of Hi are a detraction. Altogether, not a bad example of a Shusui, but suffering from many shortcomings as all Shusui seem to do.

DickB has commented how is looking for the right Shusui to add to his "blue koi" collection. Happily, he is a very patient person.

[soelistyo]

thanks for the comments Mike. The fish is from Sakai's January auction. The cheeks are rough, i guess it's a sure male. The dealer has kindly offered to replace the fish with another shusui, though he never guaranteed me a female. I think it will keep this one, just to see.
Thanks again.

[MikeM]

I would not trust my own judgment on the sex of a 10" tosai. The breeder is more likely to have it right, but they get it wrong, too. So, what can you do? With tosai, you just have to enjoy the process.

Looking back at my comments, they sound rather harsh, which really was not fair to your Shusui. I do not think there would be many tosai Shusui surpassing it easily found on the market. Right now the Hi specks distract, but maybe more Hi will fill in over the next year? With most doitsu koi, you are seeing a known variety without scales. Shusui is Asagi without scales, but not really. The Hi develops differently, the desired patterning is different ... it really is a different variety than Asagi, and not simply an Asagi without scales. And nothing seems so blue at a young age.

DickB: Wish you would share some thoughts on Shusui.

[dick benbow]

Thanks for the pic of shusui. They were the only color variety ever bred in tokyo
and the very first douitsu.

As mike as eluded to ,they are most difficult to get a good one. Surprisngly Sakai of hiroshima breeds some beauties that have won in their class in the all japan show.

Most scalation along the top can be referred to something akin to a zipper. what's on the right should line up with something on the left.

There are three basic color versions.
hana-wavy red ribbon in blue background between the dorsal and the lateral line. important they come close to a mirror image of themselves (each side)

hi shusui-red covers the belly up the sides to the scalation along the dorsal.

pearl shusui-can be any color combination-the name comes from the silver fukerin scales along the top row. A good one of these will knock you socks off! or as peter W often calls an outstanding koi of any variety...a "staggerback"!


the problem with shusui is they enevitably will with age loose their blue color.
the red is a bit more stable and does not diminish or increase in satisfactory water/health conditions.

For show grade hana's you want a white forhead/face, clean white pecs and clean tail.


for hi shusui-red on the gill plates or red in the pecs are acceptable but both sides should duplicate each other. A little red at the base of the tail is acceptable or clean.

good clean conditions are important for these koi as flashing can set off nasty infections on the lateral line scales. You want to have water that is not hard as they like asagi darken quite easily.

I'm sure the one pictured is male. the pretty two toned scalation is nice. from an opposing color toneal value.

because these koi are even harden to come up with a good one they sell at levels just as costly as good gosanke. I had my eye on a hana bred by quality koi at his auction last fall but of all the varieties for sale, it went second as the most expensive. The mother of that koi is incredible!

thanks for letting me bable about a very unique koi. ( in thruth aren't they all!)