Fish pickin' at EnKoi . . .

[aquitori]

The art of studying tosai is a hard thing to do, first thing is you have to ACCEPT the fact that tosai are for studying or for show. I still buy tosai every year to study and maybe 1 out of 20 will turn out good....

[dick benbow]

Spike Cover and i are doing a water quality round table for an expected participation from 4 area clubs in idaho the weekend of april 12th. I am planning on doing a tosai selection
seminar at both the roseburg and portland show this summer. I expect to be using Toshio's tosai via Russ at Peters & Sons....

[aquitori]

Will a article of this study be published in the KOIUSA Dick?

[dick benbow]

I haven't heard if anyone in attendance is planning to write it up, so i honestly don't know.
Would seem like a natural

[Lam Nguyen]

Hi Tonio, your response reminds me of an article I read in the latest edition of Nichirin about a Japanese hobbyist whose Sanke won an equivalent of a kokugyo award at a local show. In that article, he talked about how he came across this Sanke (it was a left-over that no hobbyist wanted but he purchased it because the dealer recommended it and because it wasn't too expensive) and how it developed over the years leading up to the award. The thing that really struck me from this article was how he said he would buy about 10 or 20 tosai each year, and of the 10 or 20, he would only keep about 2 or 3 the following year. He also said that to find a koi of that sanke's caliber is like 1 in a 100 or something like that (sorry, my neurons are not firing on all cylinders today). I gleaned 2 lessons from this article:

1. Quoting Brady Brandwood's article "Now or Laters" of how koi development is like human development, I think that a hobbyist needs to know how to distinguish between the for-now koi and the for-future koi. In order to do this, like what Dick said, one has to follow the breeders and the bloodlines that they use to predict a tosai's development. Otherwise, the hobbyist will be like me as he/she tries to get rid of his tosai as none of them panned out.

2. "1/20" Golden Rule: Like what you and the owner of the Sanke said, if you are lucky, you will get a decent koi out of 20 tosai. If one is to invest in tosai, then he/she has to accept this fact.

[Lam Nguyen]

I think that it would be great if someone could publish this. Definitely good to know!

[aquitori]

Originally Posted by Lam Nguyen

Hi Tonio, your response reminds me of an article I read in the latest edition of Nichirin about a Japanese hobbyist whose Sanke won an equivalent of a kokugyo award at a local show. In that article, he talked about how he came across this Sanke (it was a left-over that no hobbyist wanted but he purchased it because the dealer recommended it and because it wasn't too expensive) and how it developed over the years leading up to the award. The thing that really struck me from this article was how he said he would buy about 10 or 20 tosai each year, and of the 10 or 20, he would only keep about 2 or 3 the following year. He also said that to find a koi of that sanke's caliber is like 1 in a 100 or something like that (sorry, my neurons are not firing on all cylinders today). I gleaned 2 lessons from this article:

1. Quoting Brady Brandwood's article "Now or Laters" of how koi development is like human development, I think that a hobbyist needs to know how to distinguish between the for-now koi and the for-future koi. In order to do this, like what Dick said, one has to follow the breeders and the bloodlines that they use to predict a tosai's development. Otherwise, the hobbyist will be like me as he/she tries to get rid of his tosai as none of them panned out.

2. "1/20" Golden Rule: Like what you and the owner of the Sanke said, if you are lucky, you will get a decent koi out of 20 tosai. If one is to invest in tosai, then he/she has to accept this fact.

Maybe you should come down to the ENkoi Dainichi seminar and checkout fish with some of the tosai masters from SoCal, like Burt, Chai and Junichi...

[Lam Nguyen]

Originally Posted by aquitori

Maybe you should come down to the ENkoi Dainichi seminar and checkout fish with some of the tosai masters from SoCal, like Burt, Chai and Junichi...

Tony, I would love to, but I already have other plans. It sounds like a really fun and informative event, though.

[aquitori]

Originally Posted by Lam Nguyen

Tony, I would love to, but I already have other plans. It sounds like a really fun and informative event, though.

Cool, I'll take pics for those who can not attend...