breeders are Cullers

[luke frisbee]

unless you guys can tell me that these "breeders" see that the match ups will be worthwhile BEFORE they breed them then what I said is even more valid...they aren't breeders, they are cullers...
it seems that they throw two koi together and see what happens....they can't tell squat until the fry grow up....
getting something worth culling is also actually easier than getting something that they can understand how to cull....it is easy to see how a "culler" could sembetsu a spawning of fry and throw out all the fish that would be winners in 4 years.....Don't ya just know that a pair of Showa threw a spawning which contained hundreds of top quality fish but that pairs' quality offspring didn't show much black at all till they were 2 years old...and many scenarios could be identified....
A culler has to breed koi that he can cull correctly.

And is something he is willing to call his...like MM said.

[junglegeorge12]

Koi are interesting in that they dont really have 'mates'. Whoever is in the pond gets to join the fun. Breeders actually add some class to it by choosing appropriate matches and then watching what they produce to elarn how to do future matching. It is actually folks with experience in matching that do better, as experience is the best teacher cuz it is the most painful one.

Culling is a whole seperate issue, and the way it is done in ponds is much more merciful with far ghigher survival rates than the feeding fest a harvest becomes in the wild.

The number one key is simply numbers, lots of koi sex, the more the better. The more koi you can keep until they are a little bigger before culling, the better your 'culling skill' suddenly becomes. I like aquitori's approach, because it is not always the ones you think will turn out that do, and identifying the radicals who can really turn out a punch in the end is the real fun part and the real skill. Alot of teh GCs around were not that hot looking when younger, but they 'turned out' in the end and whooped some butt.