| Update on Showas from EmeraldKoi
Hi all,
a few folk have asked me for updates on teh Showas I spawned. Here goes.
Firstly, bad news from mommy, the 74cm Dianici Showa which was one of my best fish. She has whacked herself against the side of the pond or something, and looks like she has a broken back - I cannot show her now, and I wonder if I will even be able to breed with her next year...
The babies are doing OK. We have had very cold weather these last few months, so growth has been very slow. Most are about 40mm now, in the larger dams. Some (adout 50 or so) were put in an old pool at the caost, and are now 130 mm long and very fat. However they have suffered a few deformities from that fast growth. In the big dams I have probably about 1000 fish left. I have a lot of Utsuri, and I'm sure that I will have a few really good tategoi Utsuri to look forward to. There are also qiute a few Hi Utsuri which are looking good. True Showa are there, but not too many, probably about 10% of the lot. There are probably going to be a dozen good Showa there, the balance will have the hi in the wrong place and so forth. I have seen one really nice Showa, with all the right things in all the right places, a nice strong black V through the Hi on the head, and nice pattern, body and a fine spread of Hi, Sumi and Shiro down the length of the fish.
We have had the first few hot days here this week, with temps picking up to 31 deg, so I'm expecting the water to warm up soon, and then the fish will take off in size. I will be dragging the dams and culling in December holidays. That will be the proof of the pudding.
I have nad a few good doits fish this season, which look very interesting, but are also still small. My Shiro Utsuri, (my best breeding pair) have also delivered a very nice crop, and I will certainly get a few real bombers from that lot. There are thousands still in the Shiro pond, and there are at least 60% that look like like good shiros. Very few with hi markings and very few that are all white or all black, so I am pleased with them.
My Goshiki Male is infertile - I spawned him 4 times and one fry that hatched! A new male has been ordered from Hosokai, and is on the way down, so that for next year.
A few doitz benni-kumonryu also look like they will get a good chance to grow out - I have chosen a group of 100 of the better small ones and put them in a dedicated growing on pond to nurture them. They have doubled in size in three weeks, so I'm holding a bit of hope for something there too. To get them big and still looking like anything is the tricky bit there, they are usually nicer when they are small, and fade as they grow...
I got as few decent ochiba from a suragoi and kohaku pair, they are the fastest growers of my lot, and have very good body shape, colour still to develop obviously, but its there. The pure Kohaku were a bit dissapointing, most got eaten by a frog invasion. So I harvested Platana frogs and tadploes from that lot , and about 9 mediocre fish...
When I drag the Showa pond, I will post a few pics.
Thanks for the interest and keep posting!
Regards from Emeraldkoi | 
12-05-2006
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