I'm looking at purchasing one of the following fish, but i'm confused between weather these are showa or sanke.....please offer advice as whether or not you think it's a good purchase or not......the fish are around 25cm

No1

Really like the face on this one, this would be my first choice, but i'm batteling to see whether it's sanke or showa......your opinion??





No2

This I'm almost sure is showa, your opinion?







No3

Hi Cliff

No 1
looks like it has a bit of both although the sumi seems to be more like that of showa with a strong showa head pattern.
no2
most definately showa, looks doits?
no3
sanke definately, streakin in fins and tail indicate sanke as well as sumi

Hi Quinton
Its good to see you are sharing your expertise on this forum. I know you spend hours working with Tossai, would you personally buy any of the Koi posted by Cliff and what would your advise to Cliff be to be on the look-out for?

Hi, I have not gone for the showa in the 1st pic as yet, still contemplating it, in the meantime tho I went and made the trek out to Collin and Lee Ann and ended up buying 4 very nice fish, namely a gin asagi, gin showa, gin shiro utsuri and a tancho sanke.

I was very fortunate on the day because Collin helped select these 4 fish, as well as Richard Lee who I was told is a top SA koi judge as well as another big koi hobbyist, so I had 3 top okes helping me select, which they said were very very good fish, so I'm feeling very fotunate and excited about these 4 particular fish. Will post pics of them in the next 2 months or so when they're a little bigger. I'm particularly excited about the gin showa and gin shiro, the 3 guys I mentioned about were most interested in the shiro so I think I'm onto something good here. These fish I bought are, as I understand all sakai imports too.

So as for this showa (No1), probably not going to get it, I'm quite happy with my collection at present, I'm actually extrememly excited about my collection at present, will post pics but currently have the following:

1 x Shiro Utsuri
1 x Gin Shiro Utsuri
1 x Gin Showa
1 x Gin Asagi
1 x Gin Tanch Sanke
1 x Purachina Ogon
1 x Beni Kumanryo
1 x Israeli Kohaku
2 x Momotaro Kohaku
1 x Sanke
1 x Doitsu Whatchoomacallit (will post pic when abit bigger so as to try and identify)

Will post pics in the next month or 2 of everything once they have fattened up abit)

And Lastly.....Collin, you dissapeared while I was finishing up at your farm, so didn't have a chance to say thank you, thank you very much for your time and awesome advise you offered me while I was there.......really didn't want to leave, thank you very much again!!!!

Hi Cliff

It is only my pleasure...........I had some things to attend to sorry.

Just remember that the koi we selected for you was the bet koi in that pond so I hope you enjoy them. Is your koi enjoying the Manda Fu?

Cliff wrote:

Been thinking twice about this, how do we compete with the okes that buy manda nashiki and whatever else ????

Some of these things are so expensive, guess if we want it bad enough we shud fork out huh???

Seeing you're doing it already guess it would probably only be fair I guess....lol

Beware !! Keepers are getting serious with " Manda Fu " nogal !!! The problem with Manda Fu is that the Koi love this treat tooooo much.

Bobby, if you cannot beat them then I guess join them....lol

So far i'm feeding the manda fu daily and they're loving it, feeding just a couple because I'm trying to get them to feed out my hand so feeding more regularly with it. They do really enjoy it. When I am back at work next week I will then more than likely start feeding them on every 2nd night the manda fu.

Will be buying it regularly tho.

Question......after I posted this morning I went out to feed my fish and noticed one was missing, so did dreaded walk to pump and found it inside my weir basket alive!!!......I had a few leaves inside the basket so think that these luckily lined the sides of the basket which helped lessen the suction.

I put the fish back into the pond and it swam off. I have been monitoring it today and it does seem abit lethargic, but it is feeding and swimming about. Also if i look closely it's body looks a little worn, no open wounds but has that "furry" look to it here and there........is there anything I should do, or should I just leave it??....Planning on thowing in some salt tomorrow as a precaution.

thanks