Kujaku Pondering

This Kujaku bred by Oofuchi was purchased as Tosai, at some 15cm. See the left picture. The pattern is front heavy and not overly desirable, but the head is clean, the pecs are nice and there is a shine to the skin. A very inexpensive purchase for a hobbyist's second ‘play pond.’

The middle picture shows the same koi at Nisai and 35cm. A decent amount of growth has been achieved considering the unheated pond this koi was kept in. I’m not sure on the size of the system but I’d say around 1000gallons, the pump fed box filter is far from adequate, sees too little maintenance and the pond gets little in the way of fresh water. Could this be the reason that any quality this koi did have, has nearly disappeared? The only thing to really note, is that the skin on the head is still quite shiny...

The koi was then moved to the hobbyist’s main pond, more out of necessity he tells me than desire. The pond is some 4000gallons of well filtered, well oxygenated water. The right picture shows the koi at Sansai and 48cm. The koi is male and despite the obvious pattern imbalance it displays some very nice qualities. The lustre of the skin, the armour-like reticulation and the depth to the Hi plates are easily appreciated.

Did good water rescue the skin quality evident at Tosai?

As stated this was very inexpensive but as pond fillers go, it’s turned out alright!

Videos show the koi at tosai and then sansai.