Choosing good sumi on a young fish

[l113892]

Here is an example of a young Sanke. The sumi on the hi looks very good but the sumi on the shiro looks poor. I assume this would be a fish to avoid as there is little hope that the sumi on the shiro, whatever may come up, will ever be of good quality. What do you think?

[HEADACHE6]

Mike , In no way am I trying to answer your question , Because I can't .

What I do see , is there is so much Sumi on the Beni , that I don't think the single spot of Sumi on the Shiro would ever look good . If there was more white w/ Sumi on it , even if it wasn't quality Sumi , it may not stand out as much of a negative as it doe's on this Sanke .

I'll now stand back and listen to Real Answer's !

[koiczar]

Mike

As headache stated, there is quite a bit of kasane sumi, however, I have a feeling that will change. It looks to be surface sumi and as this is a young fish (tosai?), I'm guessing that it's more baby black. The sumi on the shiroji at the shoulder looks to be developing and will turn out all right. It might even end up being the highlight of the fish depending on what the kasane sumi does.

Mike P

[Bucks Koi]

Thats a nice Sanke Mike.
You should bid on it!

[dick benbow]

Good question....typical for the black to look better thru the red than white. the blue skin tho makes me think that this black will develop strongly and in the right location, smack dab in the middle of the shoulder. I also think the way the red connects to the tail that if the fish was grown aggressively that the red would pull forward showing a small but evident odome. I like the thickness of the white and red....I'm looking for a sanke right now and if the price was right, I'd sure invest a coupla yrs into it to see how it turns out.
i think you should strongly consider it!

[RayJordan]

I agree with Dick's comments. Most sanke will typically develop their sumi from the tail area 1st and then it will progress forward. High Quality Sankes, in my experience, are the hardest koi to find and develop. Also the best are way too expensive for my budget. It is just not possible to evaluate the skin, Beni, or Sumi, quality from a photo. If this sanke is avaialbe at a reasonable price you should ask yourself why? What is holding the price down. If it has lower quailty skin or lower color quality of 2 out of the three colors - I would walk away. If it has great skin and great beni and shiro but lower quality sumi it could be worth buying and learning from as it grows.

[l113892]

I don't have interest in buying the fish. I just wanted to know if there were indicators on what might happen to this fish as it grew. If one reads Kodama's book there are indicators all over the fish but I thought maybe one should look for some better developed sumi emerging from the shiro, at least in one area, to have some confidence that the sumi is truly quality sumi.

[cppond]

Originally Posted by l113892

I don't have interest in buying the fish. I just wanted to know if there were indicators on what might happen to this fish as it grew. If one reads Kodama's book there are indicators all over the fish but I thought maybe one should look for some better developed sumi emerging from the shiro, at least in one area, to have some confidence that the sumi is truly quality sumi.

Mike

What's the size of this fish? I would think that size/age would be a factor in predicting how this fish will finish.

[Super Kindai]

It will be more safe and last longer with a sashi-zumi type than that...

[kevan]

looks like a great sanke with a great future to me,