TIM WADDINGTON
Of course they are more expensive but they are worth it. The end of April will see most foreign dealers gone from the area, back at their own facilities now trying to sell the koi bought in the springtime. The breeders will now start arranging to get all the koi out to the mudponds, to select which koi are going where, which are sold and which deserve to go in the best pond. It isn’t straightforward at all; some will be chosen to go in a certain pond because the breeder knows this pond will suit it better than another pond. By the end of April the smaller breeders or the most selective breeders will have all the koi out in mudponds, whilst the wholesale breeders will still have stocks of Tateshita which will be sold console week by week.
breeding and culling Now the breeders with no koi have to start
the breeding process. Nowadays breeding Go-Sanke only will be easiest, and there are some breeders who breed only one variety, The Go-Sanke breeder already knows which male he will use with which female. He will always have a new male waiting and needs to
test it so he may pair a new female also just to see the results, but all in all Kohaku, Sanke and Showa are on the list. The breeding can take a very short period
of time. Many of the breeders take the eggs straight to the fry ponds. These will have already been conditioned for the arrival of the fry beforehand. They will be allowed the freedom of the entire pond to hatch and start out in life.
Apart from Showa, which can be culled after four or five days because of picking a single colour, Kohaku and Sanke are first culled after 40 days and each 40 days after that. For the Go-Sanke breeder it’s a waiting
game; hoping the eggs hatch, hoping they will be good koi in the end. At this stage a rainstorm could wipe out entire fry ponds, so it’s a good job that in Japan they don’t have as much freakish weather as we do in Europe! So that’s the Go-Sanke breeders taken
care of, what about the bigger producers, the breeders who breed many varieties? Let’s take a breeder like Yagenji for example. They breed Kohaku, Sanke, Showa, Gin Rin Showa, Gin Rin Kohaku, Beni-Goi, Chagoi, Ki-kusui, Ki-goi, Shiro Utsuri, Ochiba, Soragoi and a few others.
So anyone who thinks this is a glamorous job… think again!
JULY 2010 47
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