Elsie II is nice, I really feel like when Panda gets here she will show Elsie II up though, but we'll have to wait until May or so before the two shiro's are actually in a pond together. The size difference is all in the genetics. The Shiro and the Kohaku are more what is considered average size for a 9 month old. The Showa and Sanke are pretty large for their age, but I also must say, they weren't the largest 9 month olds in the group. The Sanke is suppose to have the best future as a show fish. It has the potential for the best body over time, the skin quality is super nice, but that's not something that I can even begin to explain. As I am in the early stages of learning that as well. the easiest way I can tell you to see skin quality is going to a koi show or visiting breeders or a dealer that carries high quality koi. It's something you have to see first hand, Pictures can't really show you until you know what your looking for. That's something that takes lots of time looking and studying to truly see. But what I can show is the balance, The Sanke has a really good over all balance of red, black and whit distributed evenly across the back, the white is pure, the black is ink black, and the red is deep and rich. If you look where the tail meets the body (tail tube)you can see it's thick and strong. this is a indicator that this fish has potential to grow large and strong. It's a combination of many things that is a package that makes a show fish what it is. I doubt I'll ever show it in anything more than a local show if they ever have one in our area. What I was looking for out of these was a higher quality fish with what higher end keepers consider high quality skin. I kept hearing and reading about skin quality and it was something I had a hard time grasping. I still have a problem looking at quality skin and future growth. My eyes still take me toward appearance pattern when I first look at a fish. I've learned the hard way. If a Koi is rich and full of color and looks like a show winner when it's 6"-12" long, it's very likely that that's the best it will ever look and may start declining as it grows. Many of my older koi have turned out as big disappointments due to this. Now I'm starting to listen and really look past what I see on the surface and starting to listen to more experienced koi keepers in what makes a show fish a show fish.