PapaBear's Growout Form

[PapaBear]

Selection Picture on picking day.
Koi picked at #11 in the first round.


Koi Info
Koi 1 size when received, Jan 30, 2008: 7" (more photo's in post 20)


Koi 1 size between 6/1/08 and 7/1/08: 12" (more photo's in post 64)



Koi 1 size between 2/1/09 and 3/1/09: 15.5" (more photos in post 79)


Pond temp when received: 40 deg F
11-51 will begin life indoors in QT due to cold winter water in outside pond where it will remain until pond temp reaches at least 55-60deg. Indoor tank will be at 68F.
ADDITIONAL INFO ON QT.
Ph 7.8 Kh 100 Gh 180
Pond temp at 6 month photo: 76 deg F
Pond temp at final photo: 52 deg F

Pond Info
Gallons: 6,000g + filtration and stream bed
Stocking rate: Before grow out, 20 Koi from 10"-20".
Filtration: Vortex settlement, Moving bed, Showers, Towers.
Liner Type: EPDM
Turnover rate: 8500gph summer, 3500gph winter.
Dimensions:
Water changes per week: Seasonally variable 1-4.
Amount of water changed %: Seasonally variable 5-20%

Food Info
Brand and Type fed: Ray Abell Floating Wheat, High Protein, Mazuri Platinum Wheat. Also fresh veggies, crustaceans, etc... as treats.

Owner Info
Years in hobby: 4
Years buying show koi: 1
Zone: 7
State: Oklahoma

Fun Stuff
Koi 1 sex guess when received: My guess Female, Marion's guess Male...
Koi 1 name: Aria Fifty One (11-51 technically speaking)
Koi 1 Sex guess on 3/1/2009 Still not certain. Koi is sexually immature, no eggs, no milt. Gills and fins indicative of female but vent has more of a male look to it. Either that or not developed fully enough yet.

[diamond*girl]

I am not involved in the grow out contest, but I looked over the selections and that is the exact fish I would have chosen!!!! I simply love SU's with such heavy sumi. What are your expectations for this fish?

[PapaBear]

My chief expectation...... is to be surprised
Shiro's are a tough nut for anyone to crack, and this is our first attempt at the real thing.. (the two we have now are flock spawned pond mutts)
We're HOPING the sumi will recede slowly as we enter summer/fall, with growth expanding the shiroji. Looking for good motoguro development as the fin sumi recedes, and our highest expectation is to wind up with a female displaying a strong Checkerboard pattern. I hope for the facial sumi to contract about 50%, leaving a thick lipstick and a nice memware.

The fins are well sized and nicely rounded, which helps with the female impression. There were some others that had a bulkier frame, but the body conformation on this one seemed very clean and evenly thick from gills to tail.
What I find most appealing is the apparent texture of the skin. Even though there isn't a lot of shiro showing, what is visible has a nice silky translucent sheen to it rather than the white cotton look of some of the others. If you look at the shoulder area closely the shiroji and the sumi behind the head have a very nice luster. The sumi almost looks too good at this age, kind of like fresh shinola, which would normally make me think of a fast finishing male. In this case I have high hopes it is just strong baby sumi on very high quality skin.

[PapaBear]

Prognostication and daydreaming are a load of fun... Probably completely unrealistic, but still fun. That being said, here's my none too artistic rendition of futuristic possibilities for 11-51.

Let the Eye Rolling begin

[PapaBear]

These two may get in a few mug shots of our new kid from time to time, so I thought I'd make introductions now...
They are in the same approximate size range as our new addition, so they ought to get along swimmingly

[Gallagher]

Larry,
I really liked your choice, although there was a little too much sumi for me. Love the pecs, hope the fish grows into them.
BTW how did you post the picture the way you did. I'm an idiot and can't seem to do it.

[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

[Sangreaal]

Jez foolin' around......

[PapaBear]

My Sweetie is gonna LOVE that!!!
Toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Kul

Jez foolin' around......

[Sangreaal]

All I could think about this morning was what went with the number 51. And of course Area 51 came to mind immediately with all that alien mystery and stuff. But Area didn't quite tell the whole story....Aria did, denoting a mysterious, out of this world beautiful song when paired with the fateful #51.

I could do butterflies and foliage if you'd rather....

I love the composite you made of the future 51. I can almost see it below the sumi. Good job.

Marie