Now that I've finally finished my pond (7400g), I get to look at fish!!!!!! I am just going to buy 3 semi-conservatively priced koi to get the pond started and have something to look at.
My favorite koi are Doitsu Showa, always have been.
This gal is available on Kodama. Here's my take and I'm interested in more experienced keepers feedback on my perspective.
FYI: born in 2018, 14.75 inches
Body conformation: looks a bit thin behind the pectoral fins and in the picture at least, there seems to be some imbalance in the size of the pectoral fins, left (in pic) being larger than right. This could be the pic, or angle of the fins, but it seems significant enough that I notice it. The head appears a bit small, more torpedo shaped than I think would be desirable.
Color: Sumi looks stronger than Beni. There's not a lot of white base here to work with, but it looks to me as though the koi is a bit stressed or that it's just not particularly lustrous. If the head cleans up a bit and becomes more distinct and some of the sumi towards the tail fades out cleanly towards the tail fin, that would be desirable. While it seems unlikely, it would be nice if the koi finished with a bit more balance laterally in the "third step" between beni and sumi.
Of course, it's also entirely possible that the sumi will fade out and she ends up looking like a dirty Utsuri!
So - more experienced humans, what are your thoughts?