I have got some 200 fries this year, and they are now about 5 months old. Below are some 80 of them with size around 2 inches. The rest that are not shown are smaller. They have not got optimal growing conditions (mostly low temperature) therefore the small sizes.
Their mother is a sanke, and their father(listed after size): an ochiba (50 cm), a white koi with grey back (40 cm), an orange koi (40 cm), then some 30 cm koi that joined the chase but I doubt they were sexually mature.
Basically I am happy if I get one or two better pond-grade ones. That is my start position. Still I wonder if you could give me your thoughts so that I can learn what to look after:
1) What will the most dark ones be?
2) Are there any that have good possibility to have nice confirmation/skin/head form/etc?
3) Which ones will be sure have bad confirmation/skin/head form/etc?
Then some more specific questions about individual fries (see the fries marked with letters):
A: Some fries have the gill plates sticking out: Normal? Or just bad confirmation?
Hi Simon. Thanks for posting these and listing the types of the parent koi. I hope you will post photos of them so we'll have a better idea what these are made of. I suspect that the 30 cm males that you mentioned will reproduce fine. They won't fertilize as many eggs as the larger males, but I once had a flock spawn with no koi any larger than that, and it produced some fry.
Sometimes spawns have a lot with bad gills like those you marked A. Some blame ammonia level. But I am not sure of the common causes. You can get better growth by removing those and others like them and dumpy-bodied ones like the one in the upper right of pic 2 and any that are real skinny or not symmetrical.
I agree that B is probably a Tancho, D and H are benigoi or orenji, E is probably asagi, and G may be a sanke. Not sure what F is.
There are some that seem to have good, confirmation (symmetry, sturdiness), though you'll have to watch for smaller deformities that may not show up that clearly until they are larger. Some of these include B, D, and E.
The fry have grown a bit, and it has become easier to see the minor deformations. I have culled the most of them, and now I have some 40 left. I have difficulty in deciding whether I should keep those three below, so I would like to have your opinion! Thanks.
1. A small fry with very slow growth, but recently its appetite just exploded. Its belly is now bulging so much.
2. The fry looks very nice from above, but from side it has a very ugly nose.
3. This fry looks OK from above, but from side it has a "pit" (arrow). I have several of this kind.
I think the first one has a pretty bad build with the big gut. It probably won't improve.
Those with the nose thing definitely have a deformity that would hurt their value. Though from the photos you showed, it does not seem that bad for pond quality. You are the one that will be looking at it. So it is up to your taste and standards. If you see them as ugly ….
If I saw one that looked great otherwise, I would consider hard whether the redeeming qualities were good enough to make me want to watch it grow up.