New Range of Koi Varieties - Expanding Our Breeding Stock

We asked you to ‘Have your say’ on which new varieties you'd like us to take on, and you did just that. And we listened!

We recently went on a buying trip to Japan (summary here: https://www.byerkoifarm.co.uk/blogs/blog/expanding-our-capabilities-byer-koi-farms-successful-trip-to-niigata-japan-to-double-our-brood-stock-and-expand-our-range-of-varieties) to select new breeding stock for our koi fish farm, based on customer requests; and also to build relationships with some of the koi breeders in Japan and also our wholesale agent too. We focused on non-go sanke varieties and have added more breeding stock to some of our favorite lines as well. Our trip was a success and we were able to purchase new breeding stock for several varieties, including Ki Utsuri, Kin Ki Utsuri, Ochiba, Lemon Hariwake, Doitsu Showa, Goshiki, Beni Kikokuryu, Kikisui, Hi Utsuri, Kin Showa, and Platinum Ogon. We are excited to see the results of our purchases and hope for successful spawnings this year. This buying trip was mainly focused on non-go sanke, with go sanke lined up for the next trip.

Introduction

Before I take you through the varieties, a brief intro.  I see myself as a Go Sanke breeder, specialising in Kohaku.  And that remains our most important line.  Our market here in the UK demands a wider range of varieties and with koi breeding being so difficult, it's no surprise there aren't many of us in the UK doing it.  So, we have to cover more varieties as a result to stay competitive.

Having founded Byer Koi Farm as Kohaku only breeding operation and specialising in just that and gaining our reputation there, we now need to go through this stage of generalising a bit as we also expand significantly.  And then I see a stage in the future where we re-focus around a few varieties but this will in part depend on how where the market takes us and also which of the new varieties if any, suit our processes and water.

Maruhiro in Niigata, Japan, is the perfect example of what we need to achieve to keep Byer Koi Farm competitive in the UK market and open up export opportunities too.  They produce a wide range of varieties and to a very high standard.  It's clear some varieties take more focus and attention than others, but the farm produces very high quality examples across many varieties. They're open for all to see in Maruhiro's signature circular display pond at the top of his main facility.  The pond originally being a swimming pool and converted when Maruhiro bought the site and built his koi facility there.  Another husband a wife team, I met them both and they are another couple who are completely dedicated to koi and pushing the boundaries. Inspirational!

Ki Utsuri is clearly one of the varieties Maruhiro specialises in , and I didn't see better examples anywhere else in Japan, nor anything that could compare to the growth potential of Maruhiro's Ki Utsuri.  He has quite a few huge examples in his display pond, and for these reasons, we have gone to Maruhiro for brood stock to start our own llne in Ki Utsuri at Byer Koi Farm.  Maruhiro personally picked out the nisai for us to start out line with and was extremely supportive in a short Q and A , providing some tips and key information to help us make a success of it.

On the trip, I bumped into Woody who you might know as 'Koi_in_the_UK'.  Our trips overlapped by a day, and by chance we bumped into each other at Maruhiro and took this picture by the feature pond.

I've uploaded this picture in hi definition so you can zoom in and see the range of very large koi in the display pond.  The vast majority of these koi are well over 80cm, and I estimate half of them are well into the 90's cm.   It's a very large pond, with a large number of very large koi. Impressive, and I see this as Maruhiro showing off his life's work.

Ok, that's the end of the intro and now lets get into the varieties we've purchased and information on each one.

Ki Utsuri

Maruhiro produces really excellent Ki Utsuri and we asked him to pick out 2 breeding sets for us and we received them in November last year. Now they've passed quarantine, I sexed them and it turns out a few of the males are actually females! So, we visited Mauhiro on the first day of our trip to purchase more males. This wasn’t as easy as you’d imagine as so many of his nisai are female. But, we managed it, and I now have something like 12 Ki Utsuri, with around 5 females and 7 males. I really don’t need that many but hopefully with all those fish we stand a decent chance of a successful spawning this year. The larger females from the November ’22 batch are egging up nicely! And, once we’ve worked out which koi from the batch are not needed, those spare koi will be sold.

We’ve purchased some Gin Rin examples too so we can throw that variation in our spawnings.

Our pair of female ki utsuri, fukurin well developed depite this koi being just nisai in age, demonstrating the superb skin quality.  Pictured here just after coming out of the bag on arrival at Byer Koi Farm last year.

Kin Ki Utsuri

This is the metallic version of a Ki Utsuri, and we’ve picked up breeding stock from Yamasan and Marusaka; including some sansai and yonsai koi to give us the best chance of breeding success this year.

Here's a couple of Kin Ki Utsuri nisai from Marusaka

Gin Shiro

Metallic shiro utsuri, and one of Amanda's favourites.

This one at Satoshi Tanaka has superb sumi. 

 

A range of Gin Shiro koi at Yamasan koi farm

Ochiba

Also from Yamasan, who does a good line in wagoi Ochiba; we picked up a couple of sets working through the koi with Yamazaki himself. Sansai purchases give us a better chance of success with this variety this year.

Lemon Hariwake

We already produce some of these, but not enough and we’re too reliant on a fabulous female we already have. This variety was thin on the ground when we visited Japan but I found two examples, both sansai. One female, and other we’re hoping is male. One from Marusaka and the other from Yamasan. Both are great breeders of this variety

The Kikusui's at Marusaka was also incredible , and we picked up 2 large sansai females to bolster our lines.

Doitsu Showa

You asked, and we’ve delivered! Two sets from Hiroi, both nisai. His nisai are a great size for the age and I examined the females and they are developing eggs. However, we couldn’t find sansai in this variety and with just nisai to go with, we have a chance of success this year with a greater chance the following year. I really hope they spawn because the line is good from Hiroi.

Goshiki

This has already been revealed here:

The special sansai female from Kanno is the highlight, but the Ikarashi Ozumi sansai purchased are also pretty special and includes 2 females and 3 males, one of which they were hoping to keep. We also have some special nisai from Hiroi too, including this pair:

Beni Kikokuryu

A variety we already breed but are thin on females and haven’t been able to produce these regularly each year. So, we’ve added more females and males from Ikarashi Ozumi who created the variety, and also from Marusaka who I am a big fan of in terms of doitsu metallics in general.

Kikisui

We purchased some of these at nisai a couple of years ago and hopefully this year, now they are yonsai , they will spawn. Leaving nothing to chance, I found sansai females at Marusaka that are large and just too good not to add to our breeding programme. So, they’re in and gives us something really special to work from.

Hi Utsuri

Shinoda were out of nisai and sansai, which was a bit frustrating but this variety was a customer ask and we found Shinoda / Marusei line Hi Utsuri sansai that give us the right genetics to start from and with mature females and a male to make a start with this year.

Kin Showa

Satoshi Tanaka’s enthusiasm was infectious, and another one ticked off the customer interest list. These metallic showa's are not widely bred in Japan but Satoshi is the master and after discussing the variety , he offered up a 5 year old breeding female for us which I’ve taken. Plus a male he was planning to use with her too. So, we have the tools and now just need to put it into action. I bought just one set with this variety but with the older female we stand a decent chance of success this year.

Here's a bowl of Satoshi Tanaka's nisai Kin Showa which were being sold to the trade while I was at the farm.  These show off Satoshi's work and are a great example of this striking variety.  If we can reach anywhere near this kind of standard when we have produced nisai, I'll be happy!

Platinum Ogon

We’ve produced a few of these, but our existing parents don’t produce enough of them. So they are need to be replaced and I’ve purchased new breeding stock from Kazuo Tanaka who along with Chogoru are the two most famous Platinum Ogon breeders.

I’ve bought a very high quality sansai female with nisai/sansai males – a set put together for me by Kazuo himself. The line grows well, and we have picked up particularly good examples. I expect this to deliver really good Platinum Ogons for us a bit like Oakly has for Chagoi and Opaline has for Mukashi Ogon.

I must have been so struck by the female that I only have video and not many pictures.  Here's a snap shot of her front half which show the absolute top skin quality on this amazing platinum ogon:

Extremely good fukurin displayed on this exceptional Platinum Ogon.  The effect of the skin growing around the scales to create a golf ball like surface that enhances the presentation of this koi.  The shine too is amazing and difficult to pick up on the camera as Kazuo's fish house was covered in snow when we were there reducing light.  Seeing this koi in person, I can tell you it is something so special and exactly what I've been looking for.  It's taken me 4 years to find this level of Platinum Ogon to breed from, and we are super excited to see what she can bring to our single coloured koi breeding lines.

One of the best Platinum Ogons I've ever seen, a highlight from the whole trip and coming to Byer Koi Farm to start a new breeding line.

Koromo

Ai Goromo and Budo Goromo. These have been on the list for a while, but a lower priority and one I hadn’t expected to get to on this trip to Japan. It turns out the Kazuo specializes in these too, and I’ve bought a 5 year old female Ai Goromo that will throw Budo Goromo too. It’s a bit of a wild card, but the female herself is a sight to behold! There’s congruence being able to use our well established Kohaku lines here too. One to watch, and a good chance of success this year with the older female.

One of the best Ai Goromo's I've ever seen, and coming to Byer Koi Farm to start a new breeding line.

And finally…

So, that’s 12 varieties covered , 11 being completely new to Byer Koi Farm and with a couple mentioned above and a few others where I’ve bolstered our lines by bringing in new genetics from the latest greatest lines in Niigata. Yagengi Karashigoi is the most notable other purchase here and should help us produce Karashigoi in greater numbers. A gin rin showa female also purchased should help us produce more of that variety too. And on Yamabuki, we have a massive female Izumiya Yamabuki (93cm at the last measure up) that we brought in last summer but didn’t spawn for us unfortunately.

Here she is as we were de-bagging her into quarantine last year:

The fukurin, which is the skin that grows around the scales, is extremely prominent in this superb Yamabuki.  As his her colour which is a vivid metallic lemon yellow.  Having this quality available to us in such a large female brood fish is an extremely exciting prospect.

So, I’ve picked up some males specifically to go with her and we hope to have some success with her this year. Whilst this is not a new variety for us, if we can get this female to spawn then this could be another very special line for us like Oakly Chagoi and Opaline Mukashi. It’s another play for excellence on the single colour koi range.

Go sanke, and other varieties already in production

We will of course be running our well established Kohaku and Showa lines, the Oakly Chagoi and Opaline Mukashi, plus Asagi, Beni Kikokuryu, Kujaku, Shusui, Doitsu Ochiba , Shiro Utsuri. And the doitsu metallics.

These customer favorites are extremely important to us and we will be producing all of these again this year.

Most of these lines are now award winning, and on the Doitsu Ochiba side of things we also have our project to create our own pattern style of these Kawari with a bottom up style rather than the top down , autumn leaves on water which is more typical.

And feedback on the recent trip while speaking to Sekiguchi who is ofcourse, one off the top 3 Showa breeders in Japan… was very complimentary over some of the examples I showed him from our MGS line. Ironically, the MGS line uses a Sekiguchi male! We’ll be running that line again this year.