I will write about an expert knowledge for Nishikigoi beginners.
The first article will be about “Tate-Koi”.
Nishikigoi lay hundreds of thousands of eggs at a time. However, not all of them turn out to be good Koi. After hatching, they go through primary and secondary sorting, and only a small percentage of the selected Koi finally become the ones that can win at Koi-Show.
The Koi that will become bigger and more beautiful in the future are put into wild ponds from spring to fall. This makes the Nishikigoi grow bigger and more beautiful. To place Koi in a wild pond in anticipation of their future growth is called “Tateru” and such Koi are called “Tate-Koi. You may think, “Will all the Koi I put in a wild pond grow better?” That is not true. Koi that do not have the qualities you want in a wild pond may not grow as large as you expect and their colors may will be bad.
Which Koi to put in a “Tate-Koi” is a Koi farmer’s skill and connoisseurship. Nishikigoi breeders choose “Tate-Koi” based on their experience in assessing the qualities of each individual Koi.
“Tate-Koi” are not only large Koi, but sometimes there are Koi that are completed in a medium size. How big they grow depends on the quality of the Koi, some are most beautiful at 85cm, others may at 30cm.
Out of hundreds of thousands of Koi born from a single spawning, less than 0.1% of them will become “Tate-Koi”. This rarity is the reason why beautiful Nishikigoi are called nature’s art.
