Posts split from Larkin's pond showcase

[CountryEscape]

How do you keep all their names memorized? I guess looking at the pics you can remember. And, how many of them have changed their color patterns after you put them into the pond, just curious? My favorite fish of the two groups above was going to be the Sanke in Pic 1 two posts up, until I saw the next post! Wow, love that Dianchi Showa! What makes it a "Dianchi" Showa? If I remember, difference between Sanke and Showa is they both have all 3 colors, but the Showa has all 3 colors on it's head, is that right? Still not sure what dianchi means, but I sure do love the coloration of that fish! As I've commented in the past, you also lean toward the tri-colored koi. My goal is to have more of them myself, but I don't have the size of pond as you have, so I will just continue to enjoy yours!

 

[j.w]

Very nice looking fish Larkin.

 

[fishin4cars]

I'll answer here but I'm going to ask Ian how each of you are able to post on my showcase thread. I thought only I could post on this thread. HMMM?
CE, Dianchi is the breeder, I actually bought that one off of Ebay from Kodama Koi last fall. The Koi in the first sets of pics would be called Purdin Sanke and Purdin Showa. As for the names, Once one gets a name I pretty much remember it. One or two fish I forget from time to time though. Some have never gotten names and probably never will. usually they get a name if they have special meaning.
As for telling showa and sanke, Your correct Show should have three colors on the face, Sanke should not have black on the face, Sanke should not have any color except white below the lateral line, showa should have bands of color that extend past and actually should wrap the koi but as time has passed that is far less the norm than the rule. Another thing to look for is the pec fins, Sanke should have stripes in the rays extended outward, showa should have blocks of black close to the body. traditional koi should also have this appearance. again as time as gone by it's harder and harder to tell. But a sanke should be a basically white fish with kohaku beni and the black layed on top of them, Show should be a basically black koi with beni wrapping and white appearing through. Again that's traditional and newer breeders vary quite a bit on that in more recent lines.

 

[CountryEscape]

Is this your showcase thread, Larkin, or the other one? I wondered, too, when I was able to respond on this thread. Thanks for the descriptions of color differences.

 

[fishin4cars]

Yea, Kind of weird, I was surprised there was actually someone posting on it. If you want any of that info copy and paste it somewhere. Once this is fixed I'll probably ask Ian to clean all this up to keep it neat. No problem posting here right now just letting you know at some point that post may be removed as well.

 

[j.w]

Oops I didn't realize it was your showcase thread either.

 

[Ian]

Sorry folks, it looks like after the upgrade it was possible to post in others showcase threads. I've split these posts out from Larkin's thread and I'm working on fixing the problem ASAP .

edit: It's proving hard to do, so it may take longer than I hoped!

 

[gardengimp]

Good man Ian!

Larkin, I really like your Elsie II, she has that crisp look I like.

Why is the #5 so much smaller than the other two at the same age.

Which is the one that is expected to be show quality, and why ... In beginner terms that is, I couldn't follow the thread on tpf.

 

[fishin4cars]

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.