Sanke selection

[greg]

I have posted pictures of two sanke below. I purchased one to grow on over the next 12 months or more. The other i passed up and my friend ended up purchasing.
They are tosai and are approx 17cms and from a 84cm Sakai Hiroshima Female and a Matsunosuke male.

I am relativly new to the hobby and would like to improve my Koi keeeping knowledge. I would like to go from garden pond Koi keeper to serious collector in the future. Any comments on the Sanke pictured would be great to help me.

I would like to know if the koi have potential and why, with good points and bad points. Hopefully helping me to improve my selection skills. I will reveal which is mine when i have got a few helpful comments.

I am in the middle of constructing my new pond which you can see at the link.

Link:- http://www.koivista.com/display_seri...&page=0&id=123

The other picture is of my current 1000 gallon pond.

Thanks in advance,

[MikeM]

Greg: This may be a case of photo angle causing a mis-judgment. Also, the first photo is a bit hazy. That said, I would select the second one. The first seems too thin and definitely gives an impression of being male; cannot tell about the Hi, but may be too finished for so young a fish? The second has a large head for the body and more substance in the tail area, making me think of growth potential. The Hi on the second is more the color I would be expecting, and while the fringe of scales would have me looking more closely, for now I'll just assume the Hi has the Matsunosuke maruzome kiwa. I do not like the pattern on #2 ... too front heavy. But, as the fish grows I think the pattern balance will improve somewhat. In comparison, #1 has a sparse look due to the wide separation of the steps. As he grows, I think the separation will appear to increase and the steps will seem too small. Of course, if the Sumi came in just right, it might balance very nicely. ....Just my thoughts. If I actually knew what would happen, I'd volunteer to cull ponds in Niigata.

[luke frisbee]

greg,
MikeM is one of the most complementitive people i know..........

I'm having a hard time believing what you were told about the parents...koi of that quality are sold from parents like that but they are usually passed through the back gate and their Parents are "lost."

Can you get pics of the parents? it is interesting that only one male was used?

[greg]

Mike / luke,

Thanks for the replies. These Koi were purchased as part of a Tosai batch of 75 Koi for a show and grow Competition by Richdon Koi over the next twelve months.

We all drew lots for picking order and were given 10 mins to select our Koi. Many were sumi heavy. The breeders name is unknown to myself as in the UK they are only reffered to as "Richdon Exclusive". As for how many males that were used i don't know - may have been one or more.

If by Kiwa you mean the fuzzy red at the front of the Hi then Koi number one also has this on the second and third steps possible the last step also just to small to tell. Koi number one also seems to have a lot of underlying sumi which i was hoping would come through to finish the Koi nicely. However a little gutted about the male possability. The Hi is of similar colour to Koi number 2 i am just terrible at photography.

Yes - you guessed it Koi number one is mine. Take it body shape is the main factor if judging Koi sexing from a picture?

Regards,

[MikeM]

Yes, body shape, but it really is not possible to be sure with most tosai and pics make it even more difficult. A photo of a nisai I posted a couple of weeks ago was thought to be of a male by all who looked at it. The koi was female. A different photo from a side view clearly showed a female body. Photos can be very misleading even when perfectly accurate as to color etc.

[koifishgirl]

Well I can say when the underlying sumi comes up that koi will have a nice pattern, I can see the sumi coming up and it should balance the koi out well. Like the others I cant say much about body.