This is a topic I have been wanting to write on for a very
long time .Well it’s a tricky topic to begin with ,even trickier than just
selecting good koi – cos each variety has his own traits & if you just
learn the traits and are just able to visualise the koi when it bigger – so much
the better .
But predicting whether the Koi can grow big to “jumbo” is an
altogether different ball game.
Well what triggered this is our beloved Guru Mike M again
who posted this beautifully done article (once again…)
The classic basics :
Look at the bloodline :
The bloodline is mostly what makes it or breaks it – it is
rare that short parents have tall children, even if it was to happen they would
have some dormant gene from a grandparent or so – it’s just the law of nature.
The same is true with any species, so also for nishikigoi.
Some bloodlines like the Dainichi are said to grow continuously
even after 5 years when the growth is supposed to stop for some other bloodline..
So try your best to ensure the “ogoi” are jumbo both the better
- your chances of a better growth potential is doubled .also a lot depends on
how they are brought up for eg : but we have other articles covering the topic
.
Head Size
Head needs to be
broad with a wide mouth and long ie . the eyes set a good distance apart not
close to the mouth. Also gill covers follow the same smooth line as the overall
head shape, and do not flare outwards just before the body. Shorter heads
historically not work .
Height (Jitai)
We are not talking about the “Hump”
Jitai is a good reference
,but not an actual proof cos it can make the fish tall but not necessary long ,which
is what we want in a “Jumbo
“ Right .Jitai is ‘height’ referring to
the height of the body of the fish, exactly the displacement from the back of
the head and to highest point of the body.
Tail section
Width. (Ozutsu)
Ozutsu refers to well the Tail Joint Precisely
ehm.. , well a picture is better some times : look for a good tail joint. Wider
the tail joint the better it can support a long Koi ..let us leave it at that .
Now lets us just go ahead and look at what our beloved Koi Guru Mike M has to tell
us this us this time – he claims these are his ramblings but – I think there is
something that we can all learn from this ” little” note of his .
Here is a picture from the ZNA website
A Ramble About Selecting Tosai For Future Size
In another
thread I mentioned that a tosai Kohaku I selected did not have the appearance
of future jumbo. I've been asked what I look for in predicting future size.
There are a number of traits that get mentioned when people are predicting
future growth. Commonly, it is said to look for the tosai with large heads,
wide heads and big mouths. People do that and end up with a koi that reaches
only 65cm and get confused or disappointed. They picked the one with the
biggest head. The mouth seemed wide. Something is wrong. The pond must be too
small. They need to feed more food or higher protein. More water changes?....
the guy on the internet said lots of water changes is the key to getting
growth.
Any of those things may have contributed to the disappointing small adult size, but perhaps not. The hobbyist may have gotten all the growth the genetics of that koi allowed. So, the 'big head, big mouth' thing is wrong? No, not necessarily. It's a matter of relativity.
When hobbyists are selecting from a batch of tosai, it is inevitably a batch of similarly sized fish. Is that how koi grow up? No. In every spawning, after all the culling, the breeder ends up with tosai of remarkably different sizes. Despite all receiving like care, some will be, say, 10 inches (25-27 cm). Some will be in the 7-8 inch range, some will be down in the 5-6 inch range. There might even be some still only 3 inches if the breeder did not cull them for being such slow growers. The total number of koi in a spawn that will ultimately reach a jumbo size of 85 or 90cm are few. Do you think the few will be in the group of tosai that are in the 6-7 inch size range, or are they going to be in the group that is 9-10 inches in size? If the batch of tosai you have to select from are all in the 6-7 inch range, you've already missed the opportunity to select from among those more likely to reach jumbo size. You may be disappointed that the one with a big head/big mouth only reached 65cm after years of care, but its siblings may have only reached 55-60cm. It was not your care that resulted in your disappointment. You actually did well with the selection and genetics.
So, you need to pick the biggest tosai out of the spawning to get that jumbo you want, right? ...No, not necessarily. The biggest may well be male. The males tend to grow faster and stop sooner. Males can have big heads, too.
A week or two ago on another board, Dick Benbow posted some thoughts on selecting tosai for future size which differ a bit from the conventional:
"My experience has found many tosai's put out in the mud to create jumbos and actually achieve the status end up sulking the next year despite genetics. When I choose tosai to go out in the mud, I very rarely choose those that are biggest in the bunch. Rather look for something a bit smaller than the biggest that grow to average size that first fall but then take off the next year, that I attribute to genetics."
Whether your experience consistently matches Dick's observation, many have observed koi go through growth spurt years. And, among tosai, there is the 'tobi effect'. A few tosai grow rapidly, consume an undue proportion of the food, leaving higher quality koi smaller than they could have been. The tobi fry are typically low quality. However the same effect can occur among young koi kept with insufficient food or space for all to develop fully. If the initial greenwater foods on which fry get their start were not copious, the size range can be considerable after just a couple of weeks and the dominant fish are not necessarily the ones with the genes to become super jumbo.
So, are the purpose-made jumbo tosai the way to go to find the future 95cm monster? Maybe. But, how did the breeder select the koi given the high-growth treatment? And, is the batch of jumbo tosai actually the smallest batch of all those selected to get special treatment? If the breeder gave 100 tosai special treatment and 80 grew to 45cm, the 20 that only reached 25-30cm are not actually jumbo at all. You might call them the 'mini-jumbos'
And, if the 100 were randomly selected out of
a batch of the breeder's 200 best tosai, the tosai with the best chance to
become super jumbo may well be in the 100 not given a warm winter of high
protein food. That 100 may be just 20cm, but destined to be as large as the
siblings being marketed as $1,500 jumbo tosai. I've been told there is one
breeder who does not believe it is good to force too much growth in tosai, but
likes selling high-priced tosai. So, I've been told, that breeder selects his
top dozen or so to get normal winter care and then to the mud, and turns the
second tier into jumbo tosai. I don't know if the story remains true.
Last March I acquired 4 tosai. Three were nice 20+cm Showa tosai, which have grown like crazy the past two months. The fourth was a 26-inch (66+cm) tosai. Yes, a tosai sized like a large nisai. She is a Sanke with a long, but not wide head. Her mouth is not particularly large for a koi that size. Her body is very slender with great height. Viewed from the side, her shape is rather like a knife blade. She had a couple of siblings given similar fast-growth conditions who had comparatively massive heads, larger mouths and body frames showing future bulk. They were also very long, at least 60cm. She has grown over the past two months, but I've not measured her. She darts through the water as fast as those 'little' tosai Showa, truly cutting through the water like a knife. I expect she will become very large in time, but perhaps not. Matsunosuke genes are evident in that long, narrow body. So, we'll see.
The fun is in the journey and trying to do the best you can with what you have.
Any of those things may have contributed to the disappointing small adult size, but perhaps not. The hobbyist may have gotten all the growth the genetics of that koi allowed. So, the 'big head, big mouth' thing is wrong? No, not necessarily. It's a matter of relativity.
When hobbyists are selecting from a batch of tosai, it is inevitably a batch of similarly sized fish. Is that how koi grow up? No. In every spawning, after all the culling, the breeder ends up with tosai of remarkably different sizes. Despite all receiving like care, some will be, say, 10 inches (25-27 cm). Some will be in the 7-8 inch range, some will be down in the 5-6 inch range. There might even be some still only 3 inches if the breeder did not cull them for being such slow growers. The total number of koi in a spawn that will ultimately reach a jumbo size of 85 or 90cm are few. Do you think the few will be in the group of tosai that are in the 6-7 inch size range, or are they going to be in the group that is 9-10 inches in size? If the batch of tosai you have to select from are all in the 6-7 inch range, you've already missed the opportunity to select from among those more likely to reach jumbo size. You may be disappointed that the one with a big head/big mouth only reached 65cm after years of care, but its siblings may have only reached 55-60cm. It was not your care that resulted in your disappointment. You actually did well with the selection and genetics.
So, you need to pick the biggest tosai out of the spawning to get that jumbo you want, right? ...No, not necessarily. The biggest may well be male. The males tend to grow faster and stop sooner. Males can have big heads, too.
A week or two ago on another board, Dick Benbow posted some thoughts on selecting tosai for future size which differ a bit from the conventional:
"My experience has found many tosai's put out in the mud to create jumbos and actually achieve the status end up sulking the next year despite genetics. When I choose tosai to go out in the mud, I very rarely choose those that are biggest in the bunch. Rather look for something a bit smaller than the biggest that grow to average size that first fall but then take off the next year, that I attribute to genetics."
Whether your experience consistently matches Dick's observation, many have observed koi go through growth spurt years. And, among tosai, there is the 'tobi effect'. A few tosai grow rapidly, consume an undue proportion of the food, leaving higher quality koi smaller than they could have been. The tobi fry are typically low quality. However the same effect can occur among young koi kept with insufficient food or space for all to develop fully. If the initial greenwater foods on which fry get their start were not copious, the size range can be considerable after just a couple of weeks and the dominant fish are not necessarily the ones with the genes to become super jumbo.
So, are the purpose-made jumbo tosai the way to go to find the future 95cm monster? Maybe. But, how did the breeder select the koi given the high-growth treatment? And, is the batch of jumbo tosai actually the smallest batch of all those selected to get special treatment? If the breeder gave 100 tosai special treatment and 80 grew to 45cm, the 20 that only reached 25-30cm are not actually jumbo at all. You might call them the 'mini-jumbos'
And, if the 100 were randomly selected out of
a batch of the breeder's 200 best tosai, the tosai with the best chance to
become super jumbo may well be in the 100 not given a warm winter of high
protein food. That 100 may be just 20cm, but destined to be as large as the
siblings being marketed as $1,500 jumbo tosai. I've been told there is one
breeder who does not believe it is good to force too much growth in tosai, but
likes selling high-priced tosai. So, I've been told, that breeder selects his
top dozen or so to get normal winter care and then to the mud, and turns the
second tier into jumbo tosai. I don't know if the story remains true.Last March I acquired 4 tosai. Three were nice 20+cm Showa tosai, which have grown like crazy the past two months. The fourth was a 26-inch (66+cm) tosai. Yes, a tosai sized like a large nisai. She is a Sanke with a long, but not wide head. Her mouth is not particularly large for a koi that size. Her body is very slender with great height. Viewed from the side, her shape is rather like a knife blade. She had a couple of siblings given similar fast-growth conditions who had comparatively massive heads, larger mouths and body frames showing future bulk. They were also very long, at least 60cm. She has grown over the past two months, but I've not measured her. She darts through the water as fast as those 'little' tosai Showa, truly cutting through the water like a knife. I expect she will become very large in time, but perhaps not. Matsunosuke genes are evident in that long, narrow body. So, we'll see.
The fun is in the journey and trying to do the best you can with what you have.
