Hi guys just out of curiosity what variety of koi would you keep in your pond, please can every wote thanks

Hi Dave
It must be a first for using a poll on this forum, well done for taking the initiative

I am missing the Kohaku and Showa's

Thanks bobby

thanks everyone for voting!!!!

The trouble is getting a decent sanke is not easy. Sanke Tosai are usually aka sankes and not the real deal. But i would also like to have a proper sanke one day.

I had to tick each one and if there were more id have to tick them to, ill have any koi although at the moment i have my 17 pond mutts which would really get abuse if i had to post pics of them.

LJO42
What's important is that you take care and enjoy your Koi. You know our expectations of show Koi sometimes get the better of us and we loose perspective of what it is really about. Some of the critics on this forum does not always take the personal attachment of our Koi into consideration. Well the believe of the critics may well be that you have asked for it so lets go for it.

Christie from Cape Koi Aquarium sometimes annoy me when I ask for a critical evaluation. The man always concentrate on the positives and will only comment on the good points and never really on the de-merrits. His motto is that if one cannot say something good he will not comment at all. Only when I ask him about a percieved demerit will he comment on the issue .

So I only have good Koi thanks Christie

Im going to get sidetracked here....please excuse me.

I agree with bobby that we sometimes only seek the bad. The word "Koi appreciation" is quite the opposite of "Koi criticism"

If i may play the word game...

critique
1.an article or essay criticizing a literary or other work; detailed evaluation; review.
2.a criticism or critical comment on some problem, subject, etc.
3.the art or practice of criticism.

Appreciation
1.gratitude; thankful recognition: They showed their appreciation by giving him a gold watch.
2.the act of estimating the qualities of things and giving them their proper value.
3.clear perception or recognition, esp. of aesthetic quality: a course in art appreciation.
4.an increase or rise in the value of property, goods, etc.
5.critical notice; evaluation; opinion, as of a situation, person, etc.
6.a critique or written evaluation, esp. when favorable

My feeling has always been that if you want to put your kois under "Koi appreciation" then you are asking that your kois be evaluated against the variety it is suppose to represent. So if someone posts a shesui and it has half a zip then you should expect to get that comment. You might love it dearly but thats a demerit.

What christie is doing is what Hannes Uys always say that we should do...do not seek the negative only the positve and i guess there is a place for it...but if we all did that then the person posting his koi pic would think that he has the best koi is the world....creating a false impression or he might get upset if he got no comments....

I dont think its realistic, if i post a kohaku and it only has 2 little red marks on it...and people comment about the kois wonderfull bodyshape am i suppose to believe that its a amazing kohaku? I think we should maybe be more balanced...pointing out the good and then the bad.

Personally when i post my pics of my koi i want people to see if they can see something negative that i cant as i have already seen al the possitives.

Its like when i buy a car or horse and i ask a expert to go along...i want him to check if something is wrong with it before i buy it...i dont want him to go; 4 wheels - good, paint - good .... just tell me if something is wrong! Car is rusting like a old paint can - bad, no engine - bad, leaking oil - bad.

In the end we all love our kois bautifull and ugly and i am sure many of us have ugly kois that we keep for sentimental reasons. I had to put one of my gold fish down the other day cause of a swimbladder problem that did not come right. That gold fish was much, much closer to my heart than any of my kois...being my first fish and being over 6 yers old. But if a koi keeper came to my pond he would say something like "What the hell do you have a gold fish in your pond for....if it was me i would get rid of it....."

LJO42 wrote:

I had to tick each one and if there were more id have to tick them to, ill have any koi although at the moment i have my 17 pond mutts which would really get abuse if i had to post pics of them.

And all this means what when someone has openly shared his concerns.

I guess it comes down to the question. Why did the poster post his pics under Koi Appreciation?. What was the posters aim? Only he will know why.

Usually the subject / topic of the topic under koi appreciation states that objective.

"Critique my local bred Shiro Utsuri"

"what are these?"

"Deal or No Deal?? "

"my new showa - comments please"

the description of the section Photos of the good, bad and ugly koi on this forum is
"Post a photo of your Koi to enable members to assess your koi"

Sorry im going to use the dictionary again.

Assess
to judge or decide the amount, value, quality

In the end its upto the person that posted his pics to decide if he agrees or disagrees with the information stated. Use it, dont use it.

There is another section on this forum where people can post pics of their koi without getting the koi evalutated.

Photo gallery
Place a good photo of Koi or Koi ponds

wayneb wrote:

I guess it comes down to the question. Why did the poster post his pics under Koi Appreciation?. What was the posters aim? Only he will know why.

Usually the subject / topic of the topic under koi appreciation states that objective.

"Critique my local bred Shiro Utsuri"

"what are these?"

"Deal or No Deal?? "

"my new showa - comments please"

the description of the section Photos of the good, bad and ugly koi on this forum is
"Post a photo of your Koi to enable members to assess your koi"

Sorry im going to use the dictionary again.

Assess
to judge or decide the amount, value, quality

In the end its upto the person that posted his pics to decide if he agrees or disagrees with the information stated. Use it, dont use it.

There is another section on this forum where people can post pics of their koi without getting the koi evalutated.

Photo gallery
Place a good photo of Koi or Koi ponds

Im still new to the world of Koi and have a lot to learn, and by posting pics and getting feedback is one sure way to start understanding how to point out good quality koi and understand what to look for, I ask people for critique and get exactly that for which i am grateful.....people are helping me and i am learning....this doesn't mean i have throw that fish out of my pond.Next time i purchase a new fish i can do so with applying what i have learned.

I think the point of my post was missed, maybe i should have said all varieties are nice in there own way to me i don't have a personal preference, i even like the one that are in my pond now, you get attached to them.

Quote :

Im still new to the world of Koi and have a lot to learn, and by posting pics and getting feedback is one sure way to start understanding how to point out good quality koi and understand what to look for, I ask people for critique and get exactly that for which i am grateful.....

LJO42, you are going about the hobby the way that 90% of koi keepers start. You got a pond you bought some koi...after posting the pics of them you discover that they are not the best and greatest but you enjoy your hobby.

As time progressed you select beter and beter fish as you can afford it and you do away with the koi that you now not find appealing anymore. Thats how most people do it. The ones that build a pond and spend more that the average joe on koi right from the start end up with great above avergae fish. Chances are that those people are not going to learn as much as you. The kois below was an average of R150 and the most expensive R300. The R300 Utsuri developed into a nice looking koi but died last year unfortuantly.

Look at the koi i started with. I sold the 2 matsubas soon after buying them as i realised that it was a mistake. Tha tancho, showa and sanke trew away their red. I killed the ogon with a overdose of PP. The kohaku had no red on the head and had a full pattern. The one utsuri in the picture with big pattern only had the pattern on the one side on the other side it was white. I was able to sell the new bekko ex sanke and utsuri ex showa and the bad patterened utsuri.

If i had to post any of those koi on the forum they would be crtiqued as they deserve to be. Thats how we learn. We get told the hard facts (opinion of the person commenting) and you decide for yourself if you are going to use the new knowledge or are you going totake it personally and shy away from the forum. Thats how the majority of us start and learn. Hell im 5 years into this hobby and im still learning everyday.

Hi Wayne

Thanks for sharing glad to see even you were where i am at the moment think you sum it up quite nicely, gives me hope ill get there one day

The most expensive fish i have bought to date was R400 but the majority where R250 and R135, they by know means monsters, largest are around 22cm but they will get there eventually.

Im also restricted at the moment as my qt tank is not the largest but plans are on the cards to build a proper qt pond this winter.

Cheers
Lee

Lee, one last thing.

At some point in the hobby when one has learned enough to pick a good quality koi one needs to break the bank a bit to buy it. I will go as far as to say that one needs to spend in the region of R4000 - R10 000 on nissai to get a good quality one, even the kois of R2500 or so has a good chance of turning out to be duds along.

My koi for example still does not come close to some of the hi quality koi that some of the members on this forum own. Knowldge helps nothing if one cannot afford to buy good quality koi. Yes sometimes we get lucky and get a good quality cheap koi but that des not happen often but there is a bright side to this dull reality...when you take your cheap koi that you have hand picked with all your knowldge that you have gather over the years and you take it to a show and it beats the other koi that those keepers paid thousands on....thats a wonderfull feeling.