Some koi are worth thousands of pounds, but unfortunately not all. So from looking at tosai could you tell its worth a year on?
When you think tategoi most people think of young fish with the potential to improve and increase in monetary value. But koi as old as seven can still be classed as tategoi. So how are the tategoi chosen and what exactly happens to the ones who don’t quite make the grade?
The number one ‘tateshita’ is still a very high quality koi but the breeder cannot grow on everything and must draw the line somewhere
If you translate tategoi from Japanese to English there is not a single word that can explain its meaning. It is a number of words all rolled into one but the basic gist is ‘a koi that is showing signs of top potential for the future’.
The Word to make note of in this translation is ‘potential’. Just because a koi is labelled ‘tategoi’ it does not guarantee future greatness. As the koi grows the chances of a tategoi fulfilling its potential becomes greater, after all, three-year-old (sansai) tategoi still has potential to maybe improve further but has already fulfilled quite a lot. Let me try and explain it by starting with tategoi tosai (one-year-old koi).
One-Year-Olds
Small tategoi tosai (under 25cm) are probably the hardest to select but usually the most available. The reason for this is that every breeder has to grow on many small koi to nisai, as …