Humpbacks In My Pond

From the early days of my two year journey as a koi kichi, I have googled regularly on how to pick kois and lurked on many koi websites. But the best advice was given by a well meaning koi friend who had 15 years in the hobby -- how to spot a koi with jumbo potential.

Then, there is that tricky business of picking female tosais. Having studied lots of tosai bodies and pectoral shapes, felt thousands of gill plates and pectoral fins, and up ended numerous tosais for a closer examination, I have reached the conclusion that a fortune teller's job is a lot easier!

There were many twists and turns in my journey, and picking a good koi without costing an arm and a leg became the ultimate challenge, with more challenges to follow in raising and grooming them to full potential.

There were short cuts along the way, and I have raised many an eyebrow among well meaning koi sifus by buying "finished" koi show winners which tend to be male more often than not. Well, there is always that exception to the rule which happens more often than you think if you go for the runner ups -- not quite finished yet, but having show quality bodies, patterns and great potential. They turn out to be females most of the time, with another shot left for the 1st prize later in life.

Joining growout competitions is another trick, if you go for future kois rather than trying to win the competition with a fast to finish koi. The cost is affordable, with the Japanese breeder keen to promote his fish by throwing in some potential jumbos to excite local hobbyists.

Finally, there is always local breeding, with the first pick of jumbo tategois.

In the end, I find myself always irresistably drawn to high backs, or hump back kois as they tend, more often than not, to reach jumbo.

With 20 nisai and sansai kois with the dealer heading for the mudpond, there is a small number of interesting humpbacks left in my pond:

This 57cm Marudo Showa has been genetically blessed with a pronounced hump, and is still a future koi.

These two 50 plus cm Gonjiro sankes are jumbo tosais, and their protruding humps and striking patterns make their future interesting. Their hibans were stretched rather thin by their fast growth rate, and they will need careful grooming to finish well.

These two Nogami tosais are about 45cm, and have unusually high backs. Another showa sibling rocketed to close to 60cm and have been sent to the mudpond.

This supposedly male 52cm Maruyama Showa has a body and thick tail tube that many show winners would die for. Another huge humpback, I suspect she is female and only time will tell if I am right.

This 50cm Dainichi Tancho Showa tosai is male, but with a body that shouts female. Its sumi is not yet finished, and hopefully it will finish as a spectacular female jumbo tancho showa!

Finally, the totally unpredictable! She is most probably female, and her thin beni will need careful grooming to get them to finish well. The patchy beni on her head looks extremely weak, but there is hope yet that the underlying sumi might emerge to cover up the defects.

Admittedly, she required a lot of imagination before I finally picked her for a pittance. Only time will tell!

Jeff