How to Select Young Koi Fish? Detailed Guide to Selection Criteria
What are the criteria for selecting koi? When it comes to evaluating and choosing koi, the first thing is to select their quality, as quality is extremely important. The red quality of koi comes from peach red; red that develops naturally without color enhancement is its own inherent red quality. Koi with good red quality, even without being fed color...
Taisho Sankeselection
First, select those with white showing at the tip of the mouth, a good distribution of red patches on the body, and sumi (black) spots distributed both front and back; do not select those with sumi on the head or without red patches. Those with red patches faintly visible beneath the sumi on the back are of higher quality. If you select ones with only small dots of sumi, by autumn the sumi will fade and they will become Kohaku. Without typical, solid sumi, it is impossible to keep and raise them into outstanding large koi.
For koi under three years old, this is first and foremost the period when quality can manifest, and moreover, when selection can be judged, the kiwa (color edge) portion is very small; what is important is to judge based on the nature of the parent koi and what they will become as they grow. This is equally important not only when selecting tosai (one-year-old fish) but also for koi growing through their second and third years. At around three years old, it is good to prioritize pattern when purchasing as tosai, but by the time they reach three years old, due to changes in pattern and the fading or increase of color patches, it often happens that they cannot be kept to continue growing into large fish. By the time they reach three years old, observing sibling koi from the same spawn and understanding their condition as tosai, and selecting koi based on their changes, is a very good method.