I know at some point I will definitely want to breed some of my fish and I think now I know enough to lean towards certain types/varieties etc so I figure I should start giving consideration to what types of Tosai I want to try to grow out. In order to choose correctly, I still need some questions cleared up.
Females carry the desired skin type (better Shiroj, etc.) and males are chosen for the coloration and pattern respectively?
Females and solid colors for breeding back in size?
Are there any sex-linked traits, or instances of Chimera?
Is there a all black Gin Rin Koi aside from perhaps a Gin Rin Soragoi?
I am not an expert, this is just my thoughts and personal observation. If I bred a female kohaku to a male kohaku with a different body type what would happen. There would probably be some body types that resemble the female and male and there would also be some that combine different features from both parents. The combination ones are what selective breeding is about. For example: I crossed a female Omosako Shiro Utsuri with a Dainichi Sakura male and got some showa with the female body type, and I also got some shiro utsuri with the male body type. Furthermore, there were shiro utsuri that resembled the female body type and showa that resembled the male body type.
One more thing, when brother and sister are bred together, the spawn will have a lot of freaky looking babies, so I paired a combination type female from the Omosako and Dainichi spawn and paired it with a Dainichi Marin male recently to diversify the blood line. The offspring of this spawn will be bred back to the grand father to establish my line.
Thank you for the information, and yes, this is what I have to learn before mine are old enough to spawn in a few years. I have read that Koi are incredibly inbred and so I want to have the nicest, most consistent, similar males and females from different parents as is possible to make back breeding a little easier down the line. Body Conformation is my biggest qualifying factor followed closely by color and pattern. I also have to have a better understanding of what qualities are passed on by which parents so that I know what to select as Tosai because I can't afford anything but decent Tosai and hope for the best. All I can do is better my odds as early as possible and I need the knowledge of people who have done this and know how to pair males and females that compliment each other. I think a good Gin Rin Asagi female with superior bright platinum silver as an adult would be an excellent choice with a lot of unique pairing possibilities but I could be totally wrong about that too.
I also have to have a better understanding of what qualities are passed on by which parents
Great question- it's very hard to answer that though. It's clearly statistical, but I don't think all of the trait variables are well enough documented (in English?) for a clear answers on heritance. I tend to think that somewhere given the value of the industry that that scholarship exists. Of course you'd have to have good knowledge of the parental genotype to make accurate predictions...
If you are starting with tosai you have a few years to find out
Definitely going to have to start with good Japanese Tosai so there is at least some predictability otherwise I'm wasting time $$$ and effort. Which Japanese Breeder has the nicest Gin Rins?