New year selection: Aka Muji & Showa Twins

It is always very hard to resist walking pass a pond full of fries and among them you spot giants in the midst... call them freaks of nature, or call them monster fries, I just cannot resist them when i see their strong body structure at mere 3 months old...

The smallest one in the pic is the normal size of the whole spawn, while the 3 big ones are the monsters among them...


Aka Muji, biggest of them all, 16cm or so.


Simply love the body structure!


Showa Twins, look like twins? Both ard 15cm.


All of them are siblings from the same spawn. They all have ferocious appetites, and they are fearless! They rush for food among fish bigger than them! I like!

Bro, I thought the two Showas are Sanke?! They are so so nice! Bei tahan liao leh...

Originally Posted by QAE8687

Bro, I thought the two Showas are Sanke?! They are so so nice! Bei tahan liao leh...

if sumi dont come out then call them kohaku lor... if small spots come out call sanke lor.... but parents are showa lor... hahahaaa!

Originally Posted by terence28

if sumi dont come out then call them kohaku lor... if small spots come out call sanke lor.... but parents are showa lor... hahahaaa!

Hahahahaha... Everytime I see Showa nia, I sure see till eyes juling liao! Hahahaha!!!

[FD3S]

16cm at 3 months old?! Amazing!

[nutx]

Bro Terence,

You are always given the golden opportunity to select new fries and watch them grow.

Do you think you can share your selection method for fries, and bassed on what traits to give potential indication in term of body structure, beni tone, sumi, etc?
(or better still if you can "leak" out a bit of the breeder secret...)

For example,
One thing I noted is that for 20-30+cm koi, we will avoid Big head short body, bec the fish will look short or stunt when big......but for fries like 15cm and smaller, the breeder will look for such features as good body fish...

cheers!

[nutx]

Originally Posted by terence28

Aka Muji, biggest of them all, 16cm or so.

Bro...the body and colour tone is nice...however, there are white at the fin and tail tip, which will expand when grow bigger.

here is an old Aka Muji I got, from Sakai.


I give up this pcs for the new one that you help me to secure bec of the white fin tip..

[Kohaku]

You got a very nice aka muji. The red intensity is there, hopefully the white tips at the pectoral fins will be covered by red as the fish grow bigger.

More updates in future for this koi please.

[sgbetta]

I should name u Nippon Hunter!!!Always let u hunt some new fishes out The Aka Muji looks yummy!!!

Originally Posted by nutx

Bro Terence,

You are always given the golden opportunity to select new fries and watch them grow.

Do you think you can share your selection method for fries, and bassed on what traits to give potential indication in term of body structure, beni tone, sumi, etc?
(or better still if you can "leak" out a bit of the breeder secret...)

For example,
One thing I noted is that for 20-30+cm koi, we will avoid Big head short body, bec the fish will look short or stunt when big......but for fries like 15cm and smaller, the breeder will look for such features as good body fish...

cheers!

Hi PB,

Happy New Year!

Let me answer yr questions in 2 parts.

First.... I need to dispel the myth that I get special access to Ah Seng's good babies. Actually there are a couple of hobbyists at Nippon who are always lerking around fry ponds seeking out new babies with potential. I'm usually much slower than them or I only take what they dont want or miss out. Sometimes, it surprises me what they left behind for me.

I only happen to come across these babies by accident as melvvv was looking for a Hi Utsuri baby. They were in the same net as the Hi Utsuri babies that I was helping melvvv to select from, I noticed they were much bigger than the hi utsuri babies. Since my focus was on finding hi utsuri, i didnt ask to bowl them.

So about a week later, i realised that nobody took interest in these 3 monsters, so I asked to bowl them. Once in the tub, i cld not resist them liao... I dun mind pattern, i just lust after that big body structure. I just want them to grow big.

To be honest, anyone who is interested CAN buy these babies to try out. It is a myth that only a select few get to keep the good fries that Ah Seng breeds. All it requires is a respect for Ah Seng as a breeder, an appreciation for local bred fish, and a willingness to pay a decent price.

Part 2:

About selection, it is no rocket science for me as i'm only interested in size. When u see the whole batch of fries, out of few thousands that survive the various culls, only a handfull are truly of monster proportions. When i showed melvvv the size disparity in just 1 batch of fries, he could not believe they are siblings. But the really monstrous fry are usually with little colour or pattern, as nature wld have it. So those with pattern are usually not the ultimate biggest. Alot of small ones have nice pattern but they are not big.

So for me, first & foremost is the size & body structure. From my experience watching fry grow from hatchlings to 2yr plus, the head & shoulder is always first to develop, and they tend to look out of shape but as they develop further, but they tend to straighten out in length. But some dont, so they become "pui-teh" - fat/short in hokkien. Some of my try-outs have become like this, but i realise this is problem also can hit Japan imported koi that have been pumped too much and if they do not have the genes to grow longer, they grow wider only.

Our first batch of babies acquired in 2007 are now 2yrs plus and 60over cm, only a few survived my twice yearly culling. Other than bluesotong's tancho, the rest are not great in pattern or colour but we are growing them to see how big they will grow. We are proud to have keep them from 12cm.

I think our pond has become a showcase of some of Nippon's better local bred koi, only becos I was passionate about Ah Seng's breeding efforts and i want to raise Ah Seng bred koi to see how far they can grow. I was an early supporter of Ah Seng's breeding programme, and so it no surprise that Ah Seng is always happy to let us (me & buddies) raise his good babies. My buddies Kagemaru & Bluesotong who share the pond with me are also strong believers in Ah Seng's breeding programe, but I also encourage them to keep a combination of Japan imported tosai alongside local bred ones, so that their learning can be more complete.

In our 2 yrs messing ard with young baby koi, we've got my fair share of hits & misses. Those we cull are either male or they do not grow to my expectations. What we have learn from it cannot be covered in a single posting. But what I have been doing is updating our koi from young to current to show progress. What i have not done faithfully is to update the culled out cases, so it may look like we keep adding fish to no end. The truth is that we have been very disciplined in culling and maintaining stock levels of abt 45 koi in our pond, big & small combined.

To sum up, I think what I have learnt is limited. I think Ah Seng wld be the best person to talk abt his local bred babies. He keeps no secrets, he even let Jeremy post pics the whole process from spawning to culling in the other forum...