Diamond in the rough?

[koiczar]

Richard

I for one would have no problem buying a domestic bred koi from someone I knew could provide a quality product. Looks like you're on the right track. From the pics that Marie has previously posted, I think your kohaku line will be first to get notoriety. As Dick mentioned, sanke is one of the hardest lines to produce high quality product. You're getting close. Just remember to keep your judgmental eye very strict and if it doesn't look right the first time, chances are it isn't going to be any different later on. The Japanese have millions of fry to select from and therein lies the crux. They can afford to be VERY HIGHLY SELECTIVE. Regardless of your volume of fry, keep those same standards in mind at all times. You'll become, IMHO, successful sooner than later. Can't wait to see pics of what you harvest in nisai this fall. Please keep us posted.

Mike

[Brutuscz]

First, let me say, I absolutely love some of the koi you have sold on ebay...you are very skilled. But, I am not a big fan of this sanke. The hi pattern is unbalance....looks top heavy. The area before the tail seems very barren. I would not purchase this sanke based on pattern alone. The color and skin quality are excellent..as are the other fish I have seen you sell.

[kevan]

Hello Richard,

great to see you join in, i have a great deal of respect for what you have done so far...

i think you are on the right track with your breeding, you obvously have a good eye for parent koi to get the results you do, and i think you will be headed for even more greatness once the bigger sizes roll in, Marie mentioned Dainichi bloodline could you give any further details?

also would it be possible to see the parents of the gosanke?(especially your kohaku sets ) please also while im being greedy could we see some pics of your better kohaku...sold and not sold, i just love em!

i have followed many of your koi when auctioned on ebay and i feel people get a great deal when buying your koi(shame i dont live in the USA as id grab one), they go for a lot less than most of the domestic breeders i know of sell their koi for privately, yet yours are up there with the very best if not `the best` domestics i have seen so far, but i do feel this is good and bad.

i feel its good as people pay what they feel the koi is worth and can still get great bargins, but it is bad as its painful to see that some of these fish(especially the bigger kohaku) are real tategoi and should be held back and cared for until they are larger and can make a bigger impact on the show scene and when they will make you more money to invest back into the farm while enhancing your farms reputation.

also when you sell your best fish in this way there is a bigger chance that the fish will not be properly cared for and not reach its true potential or even dying and of course this does not benifit the farm or your learning of what your bloodline is capable of long term....that is unless off course you now have a secret stash!!

these are my ramblings and may be way of the mark...but keep up the good work

kevan.

[kevan]

gotta love Richards quality...kevan (special thanks to Marie for many of these pictures).

[Richard Rombold]

So much to absorb and reply to. I look forward to the Winter when I can properly read this board and benefit from all your combined expertise. This is a very long term project for me and maybe one my children will finish. Each year I improve. Each year I learn from the previous year's trials. The main thing is to keep going.

Most of the fish that have been auctioned this last year are sub-par in my opinion. They are nice koi, but not great koi. Here are some examples of koi from last year that I feel are indicators of where I am taking my farm.







I am sorting each week for the next month or two and I'll try to get a post of what our first cull looks like. It would be instructive I suspect since it isn't something you would see very often. Thank you for your very helpful input and I hope we can continue this dialogue.

[kevan]

thanks for the great new pics Richard you never cease to impress me...i feel some home breeding doubters may have to eat some humble pie, or hats or dollars or something

ah, you do have a secret stash!!!...glad to hear you have kept some great ones back!
gonna be a few show upsets if you can get these in the bigger sizes.

i feel there are two sides to breeding good koi, and thats good koi and good BIG koi, how are you doing for growth rates?

you must have fantastic sets of parent koi!...are they big?

again thanks for sharing

kevan

[koiczar]

Richard

I am very impressed (for what that's worth)!!LOL. I echo Kevan's enthusiasm. I too will look forward to future culling pics and postings here to keep us up to date.

Thanks

Mike

[PapaBear]

I hope you plan to start entering some shows with a few of the ones you grow out . These last pictures reveal some very competetive lookers. Its nice to see domestics with "good bones". These last Sanke have the balance the 1st one lacked and the Kohaku all look to have nice thick hi plates on that snowy shiroji .
This winter (when you have more "off season" free time you'll have to fill us in a bit on your operation. Fresno isn't famous for great "Koi" water so I for one would be interested in your water quality management. It must be pretty darn good to produce nice beni/shiroji like this.

[MikeM]

Very nice whites on the Kohaku. I am curious regarding the water you grow them in.

[Sangreaal]

See those kohaku? That's what I'm talking about. I've got to tell you all that over the years of koi appreciation (long before I even started keeping koi), kohaku began to be over-ordinary for me. Almost before I got started I was bored with the red and white and red and white and red and white monotony of the variety. To me it was like, "you seen one, you've seen 'em all." I just couldn't get excited about them anymore.

Then I came across the "Fishmaker."

I can attribute my new wholehearted appreciation of kohaku to Richard Rombold, through whose koi I have been led full circle back to the likes of Dainichi, Momotaro, and Sakai, solely because their lines resemble his!

Funny, huh. A Domestic led me to Japan instead of the other way around.

*shakes head*

Richard--Wish you were going to the Sacramento Show. I know the timing's bad (harvest) and new babies, but I really wish that you could meet Toshio Sakai even if you don't have the three days required to have exhibits for the show. I just know you two are in sympatico and you could glean some priceless insight into your program and how to get it to where you want it to go.

All the best,

Marie