Comments please

[madmole]

This is my birthday present from my Wife Her name is April (Showa) (the koi, not Sally!!!)



Sorry its not the best picture. 17" long, Breeder is Miyatora and she is a Sansai. The Sumi has developed amazingly since she was imported. She is in pretty hard water

Heres a terrible pic from the importer from just before Christmas


I've had her for nearly a month now and she has grown another inch

Comments (good and bad) and likely developments sought thanks

Stephen

[dick benbow]

pretty koi.....you'll enjoy watching that one grow and improve.

[JasPR]

I can see the feminine belly line, but still this fish looks like a male to me? The color, the rate of finish and the head/nose shape say, male? As well as the overall shape. Certainly the picture you bought from looks 'all female' but obviously the picture you took is much clearer and appears to be more representative. Is it? or is your photo angle 'thinning and slimming' the fish out?

The ginrin is always battling with beni as they occupy the same view with the ginrin scales white ecthing massing some of the beni depth ( the skin right below the scale). This is beni you would normally see on a normal scaled koi.

I'd say this fish is well over 50% finished. Maybe as much as 80% finished. So if she is a show fish you should think about showing her/him this fall or next fall at the latest.

Best of luck, JR

[madmole]

Thanks huys. She was sold as female and struck me as so at the time but not confirmed. I had a flock spawn last weekend which I was hoping would confirn it but she took no part whatsoever, just follwed nme around going "wheres me food" like she normally does

No plans to show her. The pics dont do the vibrant gin rin justice and mask the intensity of the Sumi and hi. I particuly love the RAF roundal by the tail on the port side. Maybe these pics will help





nb, this one makes it look like she has a kink, its just the photo as she was just starting to swim

[MikeM]

It has been very rare to find a ginrin in which the sparkle is so even that it enhances the overall koi, rather than diverting the eyes. Seems to me that in recent years there has has been significant improvement in ginrin Showa and Kohaku. I still haven't seen a ginrin that looks great as a ginrin when much over 26". But, I am aware of one grown to a large size whose ginrin became an enhancement to the overall lustre of the Showa as a Showa, although as a ginrin, the sparkle just isn't what one expects of a ginrin. So, as the sparkle declines with growth of the scales, do not be overly focused on the sparkle. I hope you are so fortunate that you enjoy the mature fish more than the young one.

[JasPR]

They do exist , Mike. As you point out, big ginrin are rare. But I've seen some killers over in Japan.
Ginrin is really a trait for tosai to sansai agie groups. As time passes and the skin develops, the gin effect is naturally lost on gosanke because that type of skin 'swallows up' the scale in it's thick translucent billowy depths.
This is why, generally speaking, ginrin is not considered a high class trait and most often associated with baby champions and young champions.
But a really good jumbo ginrin turns the norm on it's head as now you are talking about the element of rarity. JR

[madmole]

Will be interesting to see what the Gin rin does then. She is at 18" at present but hopefully judging by our early summer here in London and the amount of food she is chuffing I would expect her to reach the mid 20"s this summer .

[JasPR]

Mike had mentioned the improvement in ginrin gosanke in recent years. This is very true. And ginrin used to be known to be slow growers in the past and not large fish in general. But that has also changed.
If I get a minute, I'll snap a picture of the only ginrin I own- a ginrin kohaku. it is unfortunately also the only shimmied fish in my pond. Blue eye lid hints of sanke blood in the recent wood pile. But he's 'family' now, so we tolerate--- JR

[Jimbo]

When selecting tosai Gosanke gin rin I assume all the same rules as far as body etc.are the same . But what about skin quality? sashi? sumi? As a small fish it's hard to tell how the gin rin will line up. This showa is one I got 7 years ago and it's never grown very much but has done well in shows winning Best Baby Best in Size and this year Young Champ at So. Cal ZNA yet it's not never going to reach 16 in.

[JasPR]

I think you have your answer whether you realize it or not? Ginrin is judged for ginrin and as a good example of the 'underlying variety' . And as you know, in the smaller sizes, the pattern is very important as is the finish. So how could your fish NOT win!? It is a killer example of a fish with good ginrin, great pattern and great finish! Size? Not too likely as the fish is finished and if it were to grow it might begin to effect the luster and pattern negatively.

I think this points out that often missed fact- each koi has it's individual moment in time. Some fish look great at certain size and age. Others take more time to reach that same level of finish and beauty ( within that sizes description of beauty). So babies and very young adults are more about color, pattern and finish of thise elements, and mature adults are more about conformation, quality and quality of color and pattern.

Ginrin tends to overwhelm and distract from traditional elemental reviews of normal wagoi. In a sense, ginrin can reveal weak skin but it can't improve good skin- only distract from it. What you really want is a fish in perfect balance between quality ( in terms of color and skin) and the strength of it's ginrin scalation. This is very hard to achieve. JR