Failing Beni.
Stability
of beni is a difficult thing to predict, it has been said that perhaps the
breeders may know in advance of us, when a koi has reached the point where the
beni is about to break up, spoil the koi and they sell it off quick. I can’t
see this as true, if that were the case, these breeders would get a one time
sale and no more, who would be going back to these breeders if every koi you
brought from them failed? To me the breeders are very honorable people and would
rather take the loses themselves than pass them onto the customer.
Early
signs of beni breaking up can show in one of three ways, from the head, from the
kiwa, or as a total weakening of the beni.
The
most common I have seen shows towards the back end of a hi plate, at or around
the kiwa edge, the beni starts to weaken around the last scale, showing a little
white or just lightening of the colour, this happens on koi with maruzome and
kamisori kiwa, kamisori kiwa, is the type of kiwa in which the hi plate edge
cuts through the scale and not following the scale edge. A koi with kamisori
kiwa which starts to fail can start to change into a maruzome style kiwa as the
hi tends to receded.
With this type of recession look low down on the beni pattern, when a koi finishes the pattern finishes from the bottom upwards, this is often also where the pattern starts to break up from.
The next is beni breaking up from the head. The red pattern on the head should not change but sometimes it does, this is the time to be concerned. If it is a koi in your collection you can see this happening, but if it is a koi you are thinking of buying you have no idea. But if the pattern on the head has receded you can often see a pink ‘hue’ where the beni use to be, also pink/red spots where the pigment is still a little stronger. (these pink/red spots and a general pink hue can often be seen in time on a koi which has had it’s head pattern ‘surgically enhanced)
Then there is the general failing of the beni in totality, this in my experience is less common. Although most beni loss is due to a trigger (poor conditions etc), I believe this type of beni loss happens more often when there is a hiccup in the system. This can happen very quickly and within week or two you can have a white koi, whereas with the others mentioned it can take much longer, some times years for the koi to loss all of it’s colour.
On
the whole the purple type beni is the least stable, with the more orange types
being better at holding their colour, but all types and shades can break up.
Some koi which are vulnerable to loosing their beni can have a trigger to start
the failing, then conditions return to normal halting the recession, only for it
to start up again with the first hiccup.
All
these points I raise should be remembered when buying a new koi, look closely at
the edges of the patterns and pick a koi with an even shade from head to tail
and keep your fingers crossed. Cheap koi and expensive koi can fail. Thickness
of the beni is an important point, some koi have the colour which is just like
it were painted on the surface, when this type of koi moves white can often be
seen at the scale edges. If you pick up a koi like this and bend it’s body,
white can clearly be seen under the scales, leave that one behind. A good
quality koi will have many layers of colour deep down into the skin.
Maurice.