| That would depend on several circumstances. If you have a high end dealer who is hand picking from the better stock ALONG with his bigger fish purchases, you have a shot at a higher grade tosai. But these fish are sold by the piece and not as most tosai are sold, which is by a group price or average price for a fixed number. And in some cases, 'by the pond full'. But here's the thing-
tosai is about numbers and odds. A typical breeder might have 4 - 6 breeding pairs. Bigger breeders might have 10 or more. So if average that to say 5 pairs, then the offspring in raw numbers might average 250,000 X 5 or one million- two hundred and fifty thousand. In truth some of those big gals might throw far more fry, as many as 380,000. But I'm trying to remain conservative in my numbers.
Depending on variety, the third cull 'keeper' numbers might be 100,000 or even more per 250,000 total spawn. Lets be very conservative and say it is 90,000. No breeder can keep and raise 450,000 ( 90,000 X 5 breeders) fry for too long. If you go to Sakai Hiroshima you will see tens of thousands of very sellable fry in his tosai room being held over for spring sale and mudpond stocking. I think that is the largest number I've ever seen?
The breeder is looking for the top 1% of production. That might be 4500 fish for next year's nisai ponds. That means that 445,000 need to be sold off quickly. If not they must be ruthlessly culled. And with the smaller breeders and very high end guys, they are. Further within that two year old group of 4500 there really might only be 500 tategoi recognized at that point.
So what I'm saying is for every 100 koi being offered there is only one that the breeder really wants to keep because it represents future value. You might be able to convince the breeder to sell you some if you have, as a regular dealer, been willing to take a few hundred of the others and a dozen nisai and sansai. It's business.
The 99 fish that come along with the 1 true tategoi, are more likely to wind up in the tank you can pick from. The 1 might be held over or offered for what it will be potentially worth in a year or two. In other words, in our jargon, it is the purchase of a futures contract with a hefty premium attached.
Now every dealer I know that pays the same for the lot of 99 will price them in grades for retail. With the best patterns being priced higher. But to the Japanese breeder they all were the same- they made the cut or they did not make the final cut. I suppose in this quest you are looking for the number one of the culled 99. Or the number one that the breeder deemed 'just after last' in his tategoi selection.
None of this should be confused with the practice of heating young fry and the frequent winter feeding of color food to create well finished and highly colored males for sale the following spring. That is marketing technique through husbandry practices and not part of the genetic realities we are discussing. These fish get a good price and can be sold by the piece but that is something different. JR | 
09-08-2007
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