What do you look for when you buy female brood fish?

What you see is what you get; only sometimes we don't see enough. Just because a fish has the tint of hi that you like, does this mean that the offspring will have this tint of hi? No. What most koi keepers miss when they observe koi is the skin. The quality of the skin tells you why the sumi and the hi is what it is. And to create a particular tint of hi or type of sumi requires a certain skin. I like to call this "skin" the white ground. But that is a misnomer. It's not just the "white."

So what I look for in a female is great skin. I like a certain skin for Taisho, a different skin for Showa and yet another for Kohaku.

After skin comes body shape, especially the face, the back and the pectorals. And this body shape changes with Taisho, Showa and Kohaku. Body shapes tells you the history of the koi, the integrity of the genetic picture. Usually, if the skin is there and the body shape, the rest follows.

Why are koi so expensive?

Most koi should not be expensive. Several factors create the expensive price tag. Of a female hatch (over 100,000 eggs) the farmer may produce 1000 first rate pieces for sale. Very few of these are great show fish. So it's not hard to do the math and see that if you are looking at a "true" show fish from a farmer's spawn, then you are looking at quite a rare fish. And a fish that that farmer has put a lot of time and money to create. These koi should be expensive.

Unfortunately, most koi buyers don't see these rare animals. Which leads to a second factor: the ignorance of the buyer in any market whether it's horses, koi, or antique furniture will inflate the prices of cheap products. And sadly, there are many koi entrepreneurs and dealers happy to take advantage of this ignorance.

How do you breed koi?

There are many ways to breed koi. We do natural spawning. In the spring as the temperature of the water increases, we watch the females closely. At the right time, we move a female into a separate pond. It's smaller and shallower. We run fresh water into the pond. This water is mixed with water from the male pond. We also put in spawning grass - a synthetic material that looks and feels just like grass growing in the pond. As the female becomes interested in the grass, we add a male. If spawning begins, we add a second male or a third. With the larger females, we use up to six males. The spawning activity usually begins around ten o'clock at night and continues until late morning.

What makes a good male brood koi?

I select males in much the same way that I select females. But males have a different skin. So to match tints of hi and sumi, etc., in offspring is very difficult. We are constantly tinkering with which males we use. In other words, we match our males to our females. And some of this knowledge is gained by experience, studying the babies. A great male is a fish with enough size to spawn with your female - the smaller the female, the smaller the male - and a great male is a fish that is ready to spawn when the female is ready. A high quality male that is a reluctant spawner is useless. Good males can be expensive. A high quality female with a mediocre quality male will produce mediocre offspring. So the male is very important.

If someone wishes to breed koi, what is the most important characteristic that that person should possess to be successful?

This is not a fantasy question. The magnificent koi bloodlines were created by small, determined breeders. Some of these became koi dealers, some just continued to breed as a hobby. So the hobbyist/breeder is a real part of koi. It is not beyond anyone's capability to produce outstanding koi. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

And great koi are being created outside of Japan as you read this by people like yourself. I like to think of this question more as: "What do I as a hobbyist need to become a koi breeder?"

The obvious answer is plenty of water, male koi, female koi, and time. Koi will breed. And they will produce eggs that will hatch. But mother nature says that the fittest survive. And great koi are genetic mistakes - they are hardly the fittest. So it doesn't take a superior anything to suddenly be inundated with baby koi. It happens all the time. But these koi are not what you want to keep. Therefore, I assume that this question relates to the production of high quality koi.

The production of high quality koi requires a more serious endeavor. You need to see the best of your spawn. And these are the weakest fry. And this means serious farming techniques. Notice I didn't say big farming techniques. Just farming techniques. The mind of a farmer will help you produce really good babies. So that is the first quality that you need.