Hi, when i started out in this hobby i was told that if you wanted a good quality koi you had to purchase one from a specific bloodline. One with a heritage...But does a bloodline guarentee anythng?
As i understand it a Bloodline is a specific strain of a certain koi type that the breeder and his family has spent years and years perfecting. The blood line of the koi can be traced back through his heritage... A bloodline gives you certain qualities or occurances that you can expect from a specific breeder. So not all breeders have their own bloodline. Some breeders have their own bloodline for sanke fro example, but they also breed koi from another breeder bloodline.
Example of what a bloodline gives you:
- Some develop hi early other devlop hi late.
- Some develop sumi early and other develop it late.
- Certain bloodlines grow bigger than others.
- Some koi remain thin and only bulk at a certain age.
- Some koi grow to 80+cm in 4years where others only achieve it in 10+ years
I was recently speaking to Ernst and he is a big fan of sakai. He showed me a book from sakai where he as the purchaser could see the parents (Oyagoi) that was used to spawn a batch. Each Oyagoi has its own traits that get passed to its offspring.
So he as the purchaser can make a more informed decision when purchasing koi as he is not only selecting the bloodline but also from which Oyagoi his koi must come from. So i can almost say he is selecting a sub bloodline from the main bloodline?
That got me thinking. Does all japanses breeders work like this? I dont know, Do they all have multiple Oyagoi? A bloodline makes more sence in the way that sakai is using it as it gives the
"bloodline" of the koi but if the other breeders are not working like that then they are just branding their koi, promising common traits from their offspring that
may occur as its not really a true bloodline.
If i use my family name "Barker" as an example. If you think of "Barkers" what are their common traits? Without knowing the family tree it will be impossible to give. For example in my "Barker" "bloodline" we are afrikaans speaking, the men are usually tall and slightly overweight and the woman are big boned (not fat) Their is also a gentic chance of hart disease but if you took another barker of the street he might not have those traits even if we are distantly related.
So if i am purchasing a Dainichi or Torazo what am i actually getting? Am i just getting a koi with a brand name? I hope i carried my point accros good enough.
Please feel free to educate me.
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Is this what you are referring too, or am I missing the point ? 
but at least i do look like them...
