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Selecting Koi You are staring into the water and trying to pick just the right fish. Maybe you are sorting through a dozen. Which one to choose? 
Koi keepers are constantly in this situation. No matter how long you've been in koi - whether you are a professional or a hobbyist - this is still a trying situation. The decision is rarely easy. The final judgement of a koi keeper's eye is the fish he selects. The better eyes have better fish. And the better koi keepers have healthier fish. The two go hand in hand. You have to learn how to care for koi. And you have to learn how to select koi. Both are necessary. And this is true whether you compete in koi shows or not. So what's the secret? Patterns Change Unfortunately, most new koi keepers evaluate koi exactly opposite to experienced koi keepers. What do I mean? When a beginner selects a koi, this beginner usually focuses on the pattern and the colors. Is the pattern like what they've seen in koi magazines. Are the colors intense? Is the red a lipstick red?  Experienced koi keepers have learned several things: Don't pay too much attention to the pattern; it often becomes what you want in a year or two anyway. And the pattern you like one day may change to a pattern you don't like. So, give the koi's pattern some attention, but unless you intend to show the koi in the immediate future, pattern is not the first priority. Intensity of Color The intensity of color is very important -- especially as it relates to THICKNESS and SHARPNESS OF EDGE. 
So when you look at koi, note the thickness of the colors, the sharpness (crispness) of the edge of the colors. These are good starting points. White Skin What most beginners fail to appreciate is good white skin. This is what I call the base skin of the koi. There are creamy whites like buttermilk, glistening whites that remind you of freshly fallen snow on a sunny morning and flat whites that are the color of boiled rice.
Conformation Conformation means how the shapes of different body parts come together to form (or conform) an elegantly shaped animal. But before looking at what the koi has, first, make sure the koi has NO DEFORMITIES. We are talking about a broken back. A fin that is curled over. A twisted mouth. A caved-in or distorted head. The rule of thumb is never buy a fish with a deformity. There are many excuses. None of them hold any water except one. If the deformity occurred through accident (not genetics), then it is possible to use the fish as a breeder. Back/Shoulder This is the area from behind the head, where the pectoral fins (the hands) of the koi are located and extends to just before where the tail connects. What you want is a long back with a strong shoulder. The long back grows into a koi that swims elegantly. Short-backed koi tend to look like fat basketballs in the water. Most long-backed young koi are males. To find a long-backed, strong-shouldered female is rare. That's one reason these high quality females are so expensive. |
Train your eye to see whites. Select fish with great white - a white that glistens and shines. White is stable; it doesn't change. And the white is what the fish is. It's what you will see as this fish gets older and larger. The rest is just plops and dollops of color. The white is the background. The white is the fish.
