Koi Fish Selection - Jumbo 2 year old kohaku koi from Japan

hey i'm Eric Triplett the Pond Digger I'm in Upland California at the home of Mystic Koi and I'm going to introduce you to Shawn McHenry. now this guy isn't true Koi guru he's been traveling to Japan for over 15 years and he bring home high quality Koi for everyone across the United States to enjoy he's an International Koi Judge and there's not too many people around that understand the true art have Koi the way that he does let's go meet him and learn some neat stuff about some amazing fish Shawn how are you doing, Hey Eric brother man good to see you how are you doing good to see you I'm great hey today wanna talk about the Kohaku, oh good I just just had a Kohaku right there It's one of my favorites well you know let's talk about the statement that they say that that the Koi begins with Kohaku and ends with Kohaku yes sure that's a very very deep statement it means a lot of different things ahhh but essentially Kohaku is a red and White fish it's as simple as it gets but there are many many layers to that and wants you can understand Kohaku you can start to understand all varieties of Koi. Wright, I love that, tell me this I want to know how long it took them to develop the white fish with red patterning sure sure how long did that take so Heroi San about a hundred and twenty-five years ago start off with literally a redfish solid red we call Beni Goi and he started noticing white keeping up from the sites and so when you look at Kohaku today its a white fish generally with very like small red steps across it, believe it or not it started out as a red fish and over the last 100 years or so they've got that white to creep up all around the sides that's that's the kinda stuff I wanna learn yeah hey Can we bowl a couple and and go through some steps, yeah absolutely, lets do it, yeah lets do it, cool all right so this the beautiful 2-year-old Kohaku from Marudo Koi Pond and this is just a perfect example of what we'r looking for in an ideal Kohaku, she is massive for 2, people aren't gonna be astonished, its crazy right yeah yeah people have no idea that, so very simple red and white fish but the Japanese have five or six different words for red to describe the type of red, five I know hi that's about it ohh, aka beni, ohh beni, I know beni to yeah yeah yeah many of them refer to either flowers or fire ahhm. showing you what kinda of red its trying to to described okay so what we're looking for typically very nice step patterns you can see that beautiful maruten here with the big circle on the head and then it's followed by three very nice stepping stones behind it any noticed almost like a lightning bolt, yah, it has a great pattern we call that inazuma I like it when it goes all the way through that yeah that's great Alright, lets pull her out and pull in that Tancho nice okay, so that Tancho I mean it's it's like it represents the Japanese flag right i mean yeah but it's deeper than ahh, I figured that much that's why we're asking you there you go, so the Japanese flag is actually designed after the Tancho Crane ahh witch is quit iconic because cranes as we all know are the mortal enemies of all Koi, I know but there's a very beautiful crane in Japan all-white and it has a perfect red circle on the head and that's where we get the Tancho, ahh nik, and it's so amazing that this fish originated as a all red fish yeah how through selective breeding we've gotten to this point where we can create such a unique pattern tell us about the size of that red circle I'll mean is there an optimal size or an optimal opposition should it be back farther yeah, this one's between the eyes a little bit, yeah absolutely, we ideally want to show off this beautiful red spot and it should be sitting exactly right inbetween the eyes touching each eye, ahh so this is a very very ideal placement I it's not perfectly centered, ah if it was perfectly centered, well its an expensive fish as it is but if it was perfectly centered wow there's a nice art of just pulling them out and then just sitting right there on your hand and balance yeah letting them balance okay this is what I want to talk about I wanna touch on it begins with Kohaku and it ends with Kohaku as far as I understand and my knowledge is when I'm looking for let say a Showa or a Goshiki or something like that I'm looking for a really unique Kohaku pattern within that fish whether it be Sanke or something, absolute, okay just like you said it starts with Kohaku so we're looking for a nice Kohaku pattern ahh, lets pull up this Gosiki because it has okay a great example of a Kohaku pattern but a different element the fins are showing slight gray in them is it, is it more preference to have more gray or less gray in the fins of the Goshiki so this is a Goshiki which which is a a variety where things like that color of the fins aren't as important I know if it's just develops because I know its bloodline that this black will actually recede quite a bit on the fins and we might get a little bit of ahh gray towards the center but overall it will disappear As a Koi judge this is one of the last thing he look for we're on a Kohakul or on a Sanke we are much more critical of those type of ideas , okay what you really want to note is how beautiful the netting is especially as we get these nice side shoots of the Koi here and you can see actually below how its a white fish yeah I think it's just extraordinary how this started off as a white and through development in the last year or so she has gotten much darker, yes she's gorgeous I think that we can let her go well that was some great information on some amazing fish I hope you enjoy it as much as I did if you are ever in Upland area you gotta stop in and see Mystic Koi talk to Sean and tell them I said hi I'm Eric Triplett The Pond Digger thanks for watching