PapaBear's Growout Form

[PapaBear]

I think you nailed it with your first instinct.
Besides... We're both sci-fi channel junkies

[Sangreaal]

Too cool...me too

Alrightie then. No flutterbye's or shrubbery for you!

[Gallagher]

Originally Posted by PapaBear

I use photobucket to post inline pix. It's easy to do, easy to view, and doesn't burn a bunch of space on the Bito server either
If you have a photobucket account all you have to do is copy the 4th link under the picture you want to post and paste it into the text of your post. When the post loads, the picture will be there.
We wondered about the heavy sumi as well, but decided it was likely baby sumi that would mostly recede anyway... at least that's what we HOPE

Thanks Larry I finally got it.

[PapaBear]

With a bit of touch up from our official Koi Bito Artist in Residence, Marie...
The new and muchly improved rendering of Aria 51's hoped for future

[The Pond Digger]

I am very fond of your selection. Knowing little about the potential for the SU variety and picking tosai, ALL of my top choices possessed heavy sumi. I choose three fish so after I got my first choice with heavy sumi I then mixed it up to give myself a better understanding of the SU's tendancies for development.

I am looking forward to watching Aria's progress. Best of luck to you, I hope you nailed the future look of her.

The Pond Digger

[The Pond Digger]

The flare on the fins of your fish are stunning and perfect for my learning curve to predict the sex at this young age. My number one pick has her fins pulled back in her photo just enough to have me totally in the dark! I will be checking back on the sex of your fish for comparison to the pectorals in the young fish.

The Pond Digger

[PapaBear]

The selections you made should give you a broad spectrum to learn from. If I had signed on for 3 that's what I would have done too.
I've gotten feedback on the fins as portending male AND female depending on the opinion giver... Obviously, my hope is female, although my wife wants a male... Her b'day gift, her prerogative.
I had your 53 fish pegged as 75% likely male jugding by the pecs, but with them pulled 1/2 way back it can easily be deceptive. The BODY on 53 has a nice thick female look to it, so I concluded in the end that it was a tossup. I think a lot of us will still have a guessing match on sex running at the conclusion of the contest, as they won't really be sexually mature yet and we may not be able to tell with certainty.

[The Pond Digger]

Thanks for the feedback. 53 was my four pick for the longest time and at the last minute I moved her up to my top selection even though my first three selections were still available. Looking at my top four selections together on the screen just before my final moment I got a hunch about 53 and went for it. I remember thinking that the three in front of her looked petite in comparison to 53 so on a hunch she is now my choosen one! I will continue to call all three of my selections, she's until they prove me other wise.

I need to go play around in photoshop!

Have a great weekend.

The Pond Digger

[Sangreaal]

Pics? Pics pics pics!

[PapaBear]

I'm Loving Me Some o' dat Scale definition...