Eye Candy: Tancho

[Brutuscz]

to be honest...the more I look at that tancho spot...the more it looks to me like it has been cauterized at the edges. Gotta be artificial!!! I'd bet on it.

[Gail]

A rose amongst thorns

I see kiefer did post as I thought he may have. This little one will be great to watch.

[MikeM]

Thoughts on the Tancho...

Steve: I had a male Tancho I loved, although he was more yellowish than is desired. His body was strong, full and graceful. I've not seen a female with a truly great body over 28", but under 28" I have seen a couple that were really nice. I think the one I posted is pretty nice, but she is rather full in the abdomen. My guess would be a temporary condition ... lots of eggs after coming out of the mud. I've not seen her in person. I think she is a koi that would need to be fasted to keep her shape. She makes a nice, fresh impression... a happy fish. I've seen a lot of Tanchos with poor body shapes. I don't think it is because Tanchos have bad shapes per se. Rather, I think the breeders keep Tanchos they'd otherwise cull, because people will buy a Tancho despite body shape issues.

I asked for thoughts on cosmetic improvement because this koi has as well-shaped a maruten as one could reasonably want. Notice how the Hi stays on the head... no straying off the head. Really nice. The even distancing between the eyes... close to being truly perfect. The roundness of the shape... maybe 95% perfect? You're not likely to ever see a 100% perfect circle. There is a tad of a rough edge to the maruten, but I can't say it was manually enhanced. If it was, the fellow was an artist. But, I've been told by folks far more knowledgeable that such near perfection simply does not happen on Kohaku with the fragile, sensitive shiro of Tancho without some assistance. But, who knows? I don't.

It is a beautiful photo, and the fish has "atmosphere". I'd certainly enjoy watching her in my pond. But, I'm full up.

[Sangreaal]

Quote: Originally Posted by Eugeneg There is absolutley no visible enhancment and photo taken with undefused flash on camera as far as I can see certaily a very sharp image A very nice fish . I Have just started fish photography and experimenting with diffrent lighting . Are there any fish photographers out there ? Regards Eugene

I play around with it...

Marie

[jnorth]

Quote: Originally Posted by Eugeneg There is absolutley no visible enhancment and photo taken with undefused flash on camera as far as I can see certaily a very sharp image A very nice fish . I Have just started fish photography and experimenting with diffrent lighting . Are there any fish photographers out there ? Regards Eugene

I'd have to say the best photographer on the board is Keokoi. I take a ton of koi pics myself but most aren't that great. Some of my better shots are at my website (see sig).

[MikeM]

Another fine Tancho, although the maruten is less than perfect. It makes for interesting comparison.

[mitten]

Mike-

That first one you posted was from Russ's AJS pics? The shape caught my eye there. And if that's not so, well, there's another one in that thread.

[dick benbow]

I would say with the enlargement ( thank-you) that it does look very suspicious as being helped by somone other than Mother nature....

[Clay]

Dick you mentioned the white ground as being very important in tancho. This particular fish looks very stressed to me. Very pink. The shiroji just doesn't have that thick patent leather look even in this photo and the white is something that I find very difficult to judge in a photo. Anyone else have comments on the white?

Rick

[MikeM]

Although Tancho come out of Kohaku spawns, it has long been observed that they are more sensitive to water conditions and "pink-up" more quickly. I have noticed this in ones that have a pale yellowish ground color, as well as ones with "hard" blue-white shiro and the cream-white of the better Kohaku. It makes little sense to me, but I can't disagree with the observed facts.