A&C 2009 koitrip to Japan
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Part 8
Today almost overslept but fortunately the inbody alarm worked well and we were just in time out of bed. Just a quick shower and a slice of bread. We will have coffee at Guchi Seki anyway (as if we all have time for this once we enter the Koi house).
If the fish are similar to last year, the coffee can wait a little longer, so we get in the car and off we go. It is actually a little further as the other Koi breeders which have much closer to our hotel their Koi house and their home.
Most breeders have to live or at least very close to their Koi house. This makes it much easier for them to do their extensive work. Think, for example, only about the selection of Koi. Also receiving guests is significantly easier.
Often the are also often minor mudponds, used for Tosai, nearby the Koi house. On the image at the left you see a Koi house and a pond in the foreground and a Tategoi in front of it.
After a short three quarters we arrived at Guchi Seki where they were already netting the pond.
The water in this Koi house is always approximately 20 degrees and even if you are outside the Koi house you see some steaming ponds in the open air. These and the inner ponds are fed by a hot water spring delivering water at a constant temperature of 20 degrees. This is of course ideal to grow the best Tosai.
Outside you can see many Yamabuki swim. This is because some of these ponds are hired by other farmers.
Inside you will find, however, almost only Showa that show quality and growth. Six to seven months old Jumbo Tosai having a length of 30 to 40 cm. So we have the feeling that we are in a big candy shop.
After the welcome greetings, that always precedes work and business, we find ourselves having a net in our hands to look at the selected fish. The advantage was that they had made two nets containing fish that were already pre-selected based on their price. The disadvantage is always that the fish in one net are twice as expensive as in the other net. After the first look we started with the most expensive selection. I finally got selected five Showa that I, gratefully and with pride, bring with me to Grubbenvorst.
Next we have a look at the contents of the net containing the slightly lesser quality Koi. The difference is small but still present. Some fish in this net were in quality only a small step away from the others that we had selected before. So it was not easy to finally select six fish.
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Seki Guchi |
Seki Guchi Showa 2 |
Seki Guchi Showa 3 |
Seki Guchi Showa 4 |
Seki Guchi Showa 5 |
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Seki Guchi |
Seki Guchi Showa 7 |
Seki Guchi Showa 8 |
Seki Guchi Showa 9 |
Seki Guchi Showa 10 |
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After a total of eleven fish Seki Guchi thought that we were ready. However we had occasionally looked in the adjacent pond, where we discovered several top Koi. The two brothers started proudly to talk about these fish and before I knew it, I asked whether they would like to sell some fish of these. It talks were immediately stopped before it was asked which I would like to have. This was much faster than I had expected (considering that I had expected a firm no.) After looking for a while in the tank, I pointed out two fish. One for Leo, who of course would like to use this unique opportunity to obtain real top quality, and one for me. It was already made very clear that we only are allowed to select two fish. The two which I selected are of such a quality that any true Koi lover started to water their teeth. Enjoy some fish that makes a Japan trip really worthwhile. |
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Seki Guchi |
Seki Guchi Top Showa 2 |
Next we took a long time to discuss their Koi bloodline and also the changes and progress of the features of their Koi that they would like to achieve and also strengthen their vision.
Next year we can also expect Sanke and Kohaku from Seki Guchi. This because he has bought some new parents fish that, after seeing the pictures of these fish, have offspring that can be very promising. In any case, something to really look forward to next year. Particularly because you can witness the emergence of a new breeding line.
Seki Guchi told me that he will visit the Netherlands during the Koi show "Koi 2000". I took therefore the opportunity to make an appointment that we, for a change, will look at my breeding results during a visit at my koifarm during their visit to the Netherlands. This is really something to look forward to.
After the long delayed coffee we left for Yagenji. I visit him already
for many years and because the time at Seki Guchi took longer than we
had expected only a small part of the day was available for selection.
Therefore we agreed to move this visit to the next day. Occasionally,
the selection therefore takes a much longer time including all the talks
in between.
Still, Yagenji would just like to show some Tategoi and we walked with
him to the other Koi house.
Here I saw a many fish that I really would like to examine further. One tank in particular caught my eye but this for a special reason. You have to know that a have to select also several Koi for a challenge stated in the Koiforum of NVN.
The idea behind this came from someone that happily on the forum wrote that I have a trip to Japan and whether it would be nice to have a Challenge with fish to be selected by me. The purpose of this challenge is that the selected Koi will be followed during two years in both the forum as well as the NVN magazine. The people who wanted to be in this challenge could register through the forum.
To cut a long story short, I proposed to do this on a non-profit basis. I had, however, not expected to have to make a selection of a total of 35 Koi from different varieties. Now standing in front of this basin for me the first part of the challenge has started. Namely the first series Shiro Utsuri. After a short conversation with Yagenji he was very supportive. If for the other varieties I will have the same co-operation and support the Challenge will even be better as I dared to hope.
So, for the people of the Challenge Shiro Utsuri, here they are ...
