Sangreaal's Growout Form

[koiaddictCA]

She is stunning!

[The Pond Digger]

Mikado is sexy as all get out! Quite Possibly the best set of arrival pictures yet! Thanks for the passion!

The Pond Digger

[Sangreaal]

Thanks you guys. Just wait until I post these next pics...they're in the Looking Glass Q now....

[Sangreaal]

Mikado is a pretty fish, no doubt about it. But one thing she has that not many koi have is presence. She may be small (benched last night, 6") but she has charisma to the nth. Check her out as she swims with the big fish....


(Bindi and Mikado)


(just has to be first )


(a little too ambitious *L*)


(diving out of the squeeze)


(not in the least shy, even on her own)


(she almost instantly knew who keeps the pellets and goodies *L*)


(lots of lustre to her skin and scales, very hard to catch. I'll keep trying....)


(notice the submerged sumi at the base of all of her fins...she's gonna have motoguro all the way around )

[Sangreaal]

As you know, Mikado came with an entourage that are not entered in this contest but whose development I intend to follow here anyway. That would be Tancho 178 and Shiro 143. Neither of these fish have Mikado's charisma, but they have some qualities well worth following so I'm going to do my best to show you what I see from here.


Everybody has overlooked the Little Blue, #143, who really is a scant 5". Incredible lustre on this fish, though the pattern is still almost a mystery. I see hints of tiger stripes from different angles--the skin is very fine and semi translucent at this stage--but nothing even remotely absolute.

[Sangreaal]

The Tancho swims to the beat of her own drummer and is pretty hard to photograph. She's a thick little thing about half an inch shorter than Mikado. Another very pretty fish though; from the right angles it looks as if she's going to have a saddle with tendrils and some good shiro, but still kinda early to tell much. These pics don't do her justice but can be studied anyway...

[Sangreaal]

I just love close ups that show all kinds of minute details--they're great to learn from. Here is a Mikado mugshot showing great detail of her sumi, and it begs the question, "Is that sumi going out or coming in?"

Look at the squiggly pattern that comprise the small stripe of sumi from eye to upper lip and barbel. Is that rising sumi? Or is it draining down?

The Little Blue has these markings (though they're the blue of submerged sumi and not black like this), but further spaced apart, on its shoulder in the shiroji area. Up or down, up or down...I guess we'll see eventually....

[Sangreaal]

As most of my friends know, I'm a skin and scalation nut, and if there's one thing I want to know everything about, it's the skin and scalation of koi.

One of the things I've tentatively mentioned here and there on the board is the possibility of some of these Shiros having convex scales and resultant pearl gin rin, and I've pointed out several fish from our growout group that had signs of such (Super Kindai's #166 being the most likely, but Carolina Girl and others have one too ).

I have had the unique opportunity to take some time and compare my little growouts to Bindi, my pearl gin rin Tancho, and finally I've managed to put together a few pics that can be studied in order to understand just what creates pearl ginrin.

I now have evidence that every one of my three have varying degrees of convex scales and high lustre, which is the basis for every pearl ginrin. The more convex the scales, the more pronounced and round are the pearls. The higher the lustre, the finer the ginrin effects across the different faces of scale.












Unlike color patterns, ginrin patterns are ephimeral and not able to be seen at every angle in full brilliance. It's really hard to catch by camera and impossible to hold with the naked eye. I'm beginning to think that Masunosuke ginrin, Kado ginrin and pearl ginrin are only separated by scale shape. This is a thesis I wish to explore with these and other growout fish I have here.

Each of my Omosako growouts have differently shaped/angled/curved scales, with the Little Blue having the oddest of the three. Each of them have strings of ginrin lights down them at some opportune angle, and their scales all have an edging of ginrin in varying degrees of thickness before the whole scale illuminates in shiny lustre.










Just a quick look at Bindi's pearls for reference when illuminated and seen from topside:


Why do the pearls look so small from up top? It is the top corner of each scale being bent inward that creates the glimmering gin from this angle. The more convex the scale, the harder a bend to the top corner, which will make a topside view more dramatic.

Bindi has moderately convex scales with a very smooth and silken lustre, which will make the center of the scale illuminate from the right vantage point (as in the first two pics in this post). The little tosais do not have as curved a scale as Bindi's, but they are slightly convex. The striations in each scale are sharper than Bindi's, and the shiroji a harder white whereas Bindi's is more of a creamy white. Still, we get an allusion towards pearl ginrin from each of them in varying degrees.















I have alot of pics to still sort through and so many more yet to take, so I'll end this post right here and continue later as I find more and better examples to study. But I thought I'd best get as many photos of the babies next to Bindi as I can for comparison sake before I move her to the other QT....

Super Kindai (Junichi-san ) has some images up on his thread of some extraordinary Pearl Gin Rins. Take a peek at those if you want to see some really good ones.

Super Kindai Grow Out Form

And discussion is always welcome here. Orating can be tedium.... *S*

[PapaBear]

I wanna borrow your eyeballs one of these days... You can spot hints from a picture (even someone else's pictures) and see whats hiding from the rest
I think your study of the scales is paying off for all of us, and those are great shots of the slight differences in the scales and how much it influences the way they capture and bend the light.
Pretty cool stuff

[The Pond Digger]

When I was flirt with my ladies yesterday I noticed a couple of special scales on one of the Showas I picked out to grow up with my SU's. Here is a photo I got of the fish before putting it in the grow out tank.



Notice in the Beni on the left side mid way back on the fish by the dorsal fin. If my memory serves me that is the area when some gin rin is coming out. Seems odd (to me) that there is only a few scales will that pop! Will more come or will what is there go away? Check out the interesting beni circle on the nose of the fish. I will make this fish my center of attention today during my flirting encounters, to gather you some more info for you. I will be interested in your scale analysis.

I know someone's having as much fun as I am.

The Pond Digger