Judge my new fish!!!

[Brutuscz]

So...I went to kimmy koi in massachusetts and bought a little something!!! The website is www.koi-art.com
The utsuri is omasoko, the 2 showa's are sakai hiroshima, I think the kumonryu might also be sakai (forgot)..love that fish!! The white butterfly is from vietnam. I have been watching this fish for several months and finally bought her. Let me know what you like and dont like...be honest...thanks!!

[dick benbow]

Didn't Want Your Post To Get Away Without Some Comment!

[dick benbow]

Didn't Want Your Post To Get Away Without Some Comment!

kOI KRACIES LIKE YOU KEEP THE KOI ECONOMY GOING, so on behalf of producers everywhere-thank-you!

if i had to pick one koi to follow it would be the shiro Utsuri. It's a male. face should clean up. Definetely more sumi coming. Nice tail stop shiro in jepardy
of more black coming up. But all in all willing to bet it will be your best fish from this purchase. think you'll be surprised what happens with the kumonryu. have a hunch it will go all white.

Sorry not much of a longfin fan unless they have a super pattern. bet the white one is pretty as she moves, tho.

[Brutuscz]

Thanks Dick...I always like to have a few butterfly koi..just for effect, not competition. I have a rule about my pond that I have learned over the last 6 years....If it can turn black, it will turn black!!! I'm not sure what it is about my water that causes this..but it never fails. It is good when you want a dramatic, coal black sumi...but it is lousy when a copper kikokuru turns all black. I have to also be careful about the head of an asagi or shusui...if its not perfectly flesh colored when young...it will become black. I kept this rule in mind when picking that kumonryu. Hopefully its pattern will hold.

[MikeM]

I agree with Dick about the Shiro ... best fish in the group. Probably male, but I think you are going to be very pleased with him. If it turns out female, it was a mistake that it was sold when it was. The Showa do not have enough white, especially on the head, & I'm unsure about the quality of the pigment from the photo. But, if you've grown fond of black koi, then I think you'll enjoy having them around... should be fun to watch them develop.

[mulberryjen]

Gotta agree with the fellas.....hope you enjoy watching the Shiro change and develop as much as I have mine. Ahhhh, nothing more fun that sitting out at the pond watching your new fish swim around and making "koi commentary" about their every move - hopefully to another interested or at least semi-interested person. Enjoy!

[Brutuscz]

Quote: Originally Posted by mulberryjen Gotta agree with the fellas.....hope you enjoy watching the Shiro change and develop as much as I have mine. Ahhhh, nothing more fun that sitting out at the pond watching your new fish swim around and making "koi commentary" about their every move - hopefully to another interested or at least semi-interested person. Enjoy!

My wife can fake it...LOL!!! ....I mean the interest in fish, what were you guys thinking? LOL!!

[junglegeorge12]

the bit that grabbed me was the bit about the black....what is your ph, what are you feeding them, and what is the light like in your pond? do the whites have a blackish tint in them? that problem is resolvable

[junglegeorge12]

I would bet you have hard water with a high ph or they are eating massive amounts of a pigment called melanin. read this, might help you. Great overview of color, pigmentation, and how water quality aqffects color. There is a reason the japanese use soft water with low tds and low ph. That reason is called red.

http://www.koimag.com/features/artic...rs_of_koi.html

Also newsflash, their water out of the tap isn't a whole lot different from ours. If you have hard water with high ph, I can help you fix that for relatively cheap. By cheap I mean less than $200.

[Brutuscz]

Hi George...It is kind of weird. My ph is 7.2 and my gh is 100. Neither is too bad. My pond is mostly shaded...but not too much. I feed sho-koi food..but mix in some other brands as well.. The colors of my fish are usually excellent. I just know that if there is sumi anywhere..it will come out and quickly in my pond. I bought a yellow doitsu metallic about 2 months ago....now a black fish with a yellow stripe down the center. The copper kikokuru in my avitar...now black with a touch of copper!!! Even if I place a light colored chagoi...you guessed it...black fish!!! I have never figured out why...but I think its best to know thy water, and pick my fish accordingly. I anticipate that shiro utsuri will have a much more dramatic sumi in 2 months...as will the showa's. My question is always...will it be too much?

I will do follow up pics in the future to show everyone...it's kind of interesting.