It's hard to obtain high quality KOI from TOSAI.

1.The majority of TOSAI KOI on the market are normally TATESHITA. These are Koi the breeders need to discard.
2.Top Koi farms seldom sell real KOI from TOSAI.
3.Some big scale Japanese KOI farms prepare TOSAI from special breeding pairs, which are exclusively sold as TOSAI. They look for early KATATSUKI (KOI that show a finished pattern early) more than quality.

However TOSAI KOI provide a great opportunity to learn about KOI development and future potential, because we can grow them ourselves and check their progress in our pond, without too much financial outlay!
TOSAI seldom improve, with more than 70% of these koi being worth less than their original purchase price within 6 months. But it is fun and helps to improve our eye, when choosing any size and grade of KOI.

When you keep TOSAI in your home pond, they should double in size during the first summer (at over 26C and fed 5 to 6 times daily) If you missed this first summer of growth the koi will not catch up that growth. It is hard to
improve a koi, once it has not achieved it's full potential in those early stages.

I think it is better to put KOI that have potential to grow bigger, into a mud pond from SANSAI (3 years). This will give us one years growth disadvantage, but it is necessary to insure we have a female koi (over 45cm
in length).

I personally recommend that you do not spend huge sums of money on TOSAI. (because there is absolutely no guarantee!!)

I'd like to introduce my past experiences with you, some good results and bad results!

1&2
I found this showa when it was 12cm from local KOI shop in TOKYO. The price was about that of a Macdonald set meal. I didn't put it into a mud pond, but grew it for 3 years at my small 7 ton pond.

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                                                                                               (2. Photo by Nigel Caddock)

I couldn't check the SUMI quality carefully at this small size but it did not have TSUYA & TERI (shine and luster), so when it grew to about 50cm it had the lowest MAGOI quality SUMI (pale grey). Also I should have known this
type of brick colour red HI wouldn't improve when it grew to a bigger size. The breeder of this showa is unknown so I couldn't check body characteristics or tendency.
Now it has an ugly body shape, with a nasty curved line from scale19 to 23. With a fat abdomen slimming suddenly to the narrow tail.
Anyway it was a cheap koi and I learned a lot from this showa!

3&4
I found this showa at 16cm, for around the price of a restaurant meal for 4 people!!
I placed her in a mud pond on 2 successive years when she was YONSAI &GOSAI (4 & 5 years) she reached 67cm, but died last year.

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When she was NISAI (2) The SUMI almost disappeared and never came back. I thought she had good HI but when I looked carefully at photos afterwards, the density of HI was not good and would not hold any quality when grown to
such a size. It was heavily colour enhanced as a TOSAI, so I couldn't know real
quality....!

5&6
I was just lucky!! I picked up this 15cm TANCHO SHOWA, for the price of staying in a single room at a business HOTEL in TOKYO.

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                                                                                                     photo by Nigel Caddock)

I put her into a mud pond for a year when she was YONSAI. She was still TATEGOI but I sold her to someone in the UK when she was ROKUSAI (6 years old) and 66cm.
I didn't want to sell her but I needed money at that time!!!!

7,8&9
I found this KOHAKU at 16cm for the same price as 5 TANCHO showa.

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99

It is male and has a very scattered small pattern (KOMOYOU) so I thought it might disappear when it grew bigger. The other KOHAKU in the photo, lost
the hi pattern on it's left side completely.
This male KOHAKU now 68cm and JUNISAI(12 year) is still fine!! Of course I never put him into a mud pond, that's why I said male KOI can be kept longer and it's hard to break the body shape even in such a small
concrete pond.
He has the type of BENI quality that always stays deep red whether you provide colour enhancer or not. I knew he was bred from a KOI farm where they use OYAGOI (parent koi) from MARUYAMA KOI farm so I guess he could have inherited the type of BENI from KAGURA??

10,11&12 MATSUNOSUKE SANKE (This was the very last of  his previous type SUMI)
bred by ISAWA NISHIKIGOI CENTER.
They do not produce this type of SUMI at MATSUNOSUKE any longer, but I like it!

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