They are beautiful. If you plan on selling (and shipping) put me down on the list, I want one.
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
Nice group Max. I especially like the ones that have both ample ki and the dark blue spine scales. They make an eye-catching contrast.
i like her, too, Matt. She's a big girl and i know she's going to make the finals in May. i have another similar female but her ki crosses the dorsal ridge. i learned that this is indicative of the pied (spotted) gene and the single difference between ki shusui and ayawakaba. not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's the subtle difference that makes the varieties. After 11 years of this, it's ki shusui or bust. I took a screen writing course (3x) from a Hollywood screenwriter who teaches story telling in auditoriums around the world. packing them for three days at a shot. One thing he said was "It takes ten years to master anything." I thought, "not me." and yet here I am at 11 yrs of ki shusui with another year to have ki shusui coming out of my ears - maybe. He was right about the writing, too. We soldier on.
i forgot to tell you about this funny thing that happens at pondside with guests who've never been to our koi harvests before.
John and I have been doing this annually and we know what we're looking for.
the guests just see the fish are big, with these striking markings,
but John and I see the heads that are going dark, dragon scales, broken zippers, and other traits that are not going to move the project forward.
We look at a tub or net of fish and it's "Yes." "No." "No" "No." Yes" and we do it fast. Have to. Fish are stressed. People are wet, tired, cold.
And whenever we do a thumbs down, the guests, in unison, go, "Oh nooooooooooooo."" LOL
We're not killing them!!!
We're taking them out of the oyagoi sweepstakes.
In this tiny group of guests, all were masters at something; photography, ballroom dancing, farming, horse riding and animal husbandry, painting-- so they know! not sure what that "oh nooooooooooo." is all about, Empathy for the fish?
but it is hilarious.
Maybe you had to be there.
This fish was named Marigold by a guest.
And here's the iconic Ki Shusui that made me fall in love. Her ki crosses her dorsal but I didn't notice then. I'm not even sure this is a real koi or someone's ideal. But for me:
Last edited by Koigrl; 10-16-2020 at 06:24 AM.
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
Good morning Max, lady you are there, the breeder's you have there are exceptional. This will become a chapter of the Nishikigoi history in this country awesome work.
Last edited by Koigrl; 10-16-2020 at 11:14 AM.
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
Cindy, you've been with me from the beginning. thank you.
not ready to sell any yet.
Have the currently best 17 in the line in the nursery with plans for them in the spring. clean the pond. sex those 17. pick out six or eight bestest, and let 'em listen to mother nature. going to give them the best chance to spawn their brains out, give me thousands as happened in 2017. if they do that will be the destiny spawn and we'll see where we are, what to do.
i would say, "can't wait" but i can!
been an exhausting year and just want to sleep, read, watch tv, watch snow falling and sleep some more.
I have a feeling a lot of us feel this way.
cindy, might be time in the next month or so for us to speak on the phone.
Until then.
max
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
Dear Team Ki,
We had a first class heartbreak here in the ki shusui breeding pond.
Last fall, we winnowed down the best of a hundred or so to seventeen ki shusui wunderkind. This is all documented in the last few posts from Oct. Nov. We thought most of the seventeen were girls and imported a male from the same gene pool in a different pond.
We buttoned up the lower pond for the winter. For some reason, I, me, myself, shut off the water from the well. Don't know what I was thinking exactly, other people turning off their waterfalls, mindlessness, dunno. Had plenty of air, covered the well heads with winterizing blankets, tightened all the nets that enclosed the lower pond around all sides and over the top. Wished the fish a good winter and trudged up the hill to home.
A few weeks ago, the snow had melted, and I went down to the lower pond to check it out. Saw a big yellow ki shusui lying on the bank with a big bite out of its neck. found another lying upside down in the water with eyes eaten out.
About then, i noticed that the water was down just over a foot.
Figured out that turning off the water was a Gigantic mistake.
(I did same in the other two ponds, but the Middle and the Big both had independent water sources. Middle has a spring. Big has a little brook.)
So the hunt went on for what had eaten the big yellow ki shusui. Monty, who is a mason, but also a trapper, set up trail or game cam and set a trap.
See next post.
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
The game cam caught a number of Noah's Ark on a stroll plus humans checking the Havahart traps baited with ki shusui remains. (I have changed photo platforms so if i can attach photos later.)
First up, Fox, followed by opossum, raccoon, house cat and an unidentified animal with a flat tail, more raccoons.
Investigation showed that there were great scratch marks on the door to the pond - it is rustic style ceder door -- and above the door a very large hole in the netting. Big enough for large raccoon to scale the door, go through hole, climb down the other side.
More investigation showed that the 20' x 20' stand of cattails had flattened over winter. They had been holding up the net at the shallow end as well as other structures on opposite banks. Now these reeds had died over winter and the netting had lowered making a nice graduated angle for a critter to walk over so as to be closer to the water surface.
Baited traps caught nothing and fish parts and pieces were taken out of the pond. so thought that predator was living in the pond was relieved.
So
Where were the other remaining fifteen fish or some of that number. The koi in the lower have been shy in the past due to visits from giant bird, so i wasn't overly shocked when none came up to feed. But when fish from the other two ponds were ready to eat, i started to sink. Were all my F2 oyagoi history?
What now? I called John Clark who has indulged my obsessive ki shusui breeding program since the beginning twelve years ago. He has seined the ponds, used his greater experience with fish of many types, pulled hand net after hand net during the culling process, pausing as i selected the best of each generation, twice a year times three ponds total of a million gallons, took the culls to sell so I didn't have to make any life/death decisions at all.
John's plan.
Seine the lower pond, see if there were any living fish remaining, and make a new plan accordingly.
We expected no remaining fish.
Then, Monty saw two swimming and that meant, maybe more would be under the mattress of fallen reeds.
See next post.
Last edited by Koigrl; 04-21-2021 at 08:41 AM.
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
First, Welcome back Max, sorry to hear about your setback but it sounds like you quickly identified what happened took action. I've also have lost fish in the past and it has taken me sometime to regain my thoughts to keep moving forward. I know you and the koi will have a great spring, stay positive I posted a comment not realizing how hard of a hit that particular pond took, this winter was brutal and wasn't pleasant to fish that were exposed to the elements sorry for the loss of all your hard work.
Last edited by Orlando; 04-21-2021 at 03:28 PM.
The pond when full holds about 135k gallons. Now, down a foot plus, call it 100k. We began seining on Monday eve (19th) and turned off the pump when we were halfway down. Tues. morn. we resumed. I was too far away from the two fish we had spied the day before, but could see them better now. One was a female, the other was a male.
Looked to me from where I stood on the bank that the female might be my avatar and favorite ki shusui that I called Legacy. Her ground color is white, and she has ki markings and on both sides. Clean face. Good form. The male was unnamed, blue with a yellow belly and moto guro of the ki variety. He was following the female, his nose to her tail.
I was still pretty much a drag to be around. Twelve years of hopes and dreams, dashed -- yada yada -- but at least I had two.
Would others be in the weeds?
NO.
Two fish had survived the winter of 2020-2021 devastation, but when we pulled them out, yes! The female was Legacy. What were the odds? The male was a nice torpedo shape, good attitude. Interested in sex play with Legacy. whoa. The boy showed signs of stress but didn't lose his urge to merge. I took pictures, of course, and will do my best to post them with this new platform.
Meanwhile, we moved the two fish into a net basket standing in a fourth very small pond. We put in a strip of breeding media just in case and to give them something to think about. We covered the top of the basket with plywood drilled into the pvc so no poky raccoons could wade in and eat the oyagoi.
So the plan as of this day April 21, 2021 is this.
On Thursday, John will lime the lower pond.
We will refill it.
We will introduce Legacy and "The Last Man Standing."
We may also pull the Big Pond where i put 70 or 80 of the culled ki shusui and look for another male.
And that's the story from Heartbreak to Hope and we learned a few things that will help us keep fish safe going forward.
All comments welcome.
Pictures, I hope, to come.
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
Photos for this post:
Two last fish standing: Legacy and Last Man Standing
Human: John Clark doing the heavy lifting. Koigrl, Sean Arsenault with plywood lid.
More when we lime the pond.
[attach=config]608440[attach=config]608441
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
Do you sell koi? I'd so, also ship them or only for pickup?
Awesome project and nice to see you reach your goal!
Thanks, secuono for the kind words and offer -- but I don't sell koi. If these two spawn and i have kids galore, i'll think about it again, but right now, i'm a back yard breeder with high aspirations.
More another time.
Best,
koigrl
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
PARAMS re water quality are " EVERYTHING".
The Carl and Alex website I posted on Stephens thread recently ( given I loathe the idea of fishing) yet Love their "Koi/Fishkeeping" lifetime dedication qualifies this.
Their exposure re those responsible for such utter neglect in respect of the small bodies of water in their charge beggars belief.
Aquaculture ideal conditions re "PHISH" in general has minimal standards permitted.
All we as their custodians need to be aware of IS, maintaining the best within said spectrum folks, OR maximise those ideals, our choice?
[QUOTE=CHICHI;2777122]PARAMS re water quality are " EVERYTHING".
Chichi, i think you meant to post this to a thread on water parameters.
Last edited by Koigrl; 04-21-2021 at 08:51 PM.
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014
Thanks, Steve. and thanks to you, too Mitchie.
Liming the pond tomorrow. If we don't have
Ki Shusui Project : 300k Challenge : 500k Build : Flock Spawn Jamboree : Our Ki Midori Champions
Ten minute video of Russ Peters sexing our future ki shusui oyagoi. : http://youtu.be/AhROs1cjC18
Updated for the 2018 Harvest: What is "ki shusui?" Short version http://www.kishusui.com
Twelve seconds that are the entire point of the last seven years!
https://youtu.be/zNqTJgM3lpY
If you're reading this, you're on Team Ki.
Kichi loves company. Max
K-POTY 2014