Enigma of Shiro Utsuri Part 1

I would like to share my experiences about the enigma of shiro utsuri in a series of different shiro utsuri for each post. I will discuss the important aspects of judging good shiro utsuri and predict the sumi and shiroji development. As you can see,koi in photo A,B,C, and D are the same shiro utsuri at different stages of growth.

Many might say, shiro utsuri with pure black pectoral fins, black tail, and heavy sumi on the head is not good at all as seen in photo A and B.But at a later stage, as seen in photo C, the sumi disappear/faded but the head still seems a little yellowish. In the same photo, the sumi at the tail section and pectoral fins disappeared as well. In fact, the motoguro became so much nicer and it receded to about half the length of the pectoral fins.Ideally, for either showa or shiro utsuri variety, it is good to have 1/2 to 1/3 of motoguro relative to the full length of the pectoral fins.

The striking sumi pattern on the head of photo B can fully disappear as seen in photo C & D. Wondering if the sumi will reappear? The chances are 50%/50% in my honest opinion depending on water parameters. With the right PH,carbonate hardness, and no sudden major changes of fresh water intake to the pond, it will probably help the sumi to reemerge. The process may take months or years but if you are lucky it may appear in a few weeks.

In photo D, the white base on the head is almost snow white unlike photo A & B. So why are you afraid of picking shiro utsuri with yellow head when it is young? It is a risk that we have to take if we rare tosai shiro utsuri. It may or may not turn out to be good. Assuming if you were to buy a stable sumi and white shiro utsuri about 2 or 3 years old with decent pattern, probably it is the best piece out of 20 pieces you bought when they were tosai(one year old fish). So the success rate of getting a good shiro utsuri regardless of sex from tosai is approximately 5% to 10% assuming if you were to buy in-bulk. If we expect to pick only good female shiro utsuri with decent pattern, then the percentage would drop to about 1% to 5%. In some cases, in order to get top class female shiro utsuri with very nice pattern,high quality,thick body structure, and show quality, probably 5 to 10 pieces out of over 300 shiro utsuri tosai that purchased in-bulk and that is only 0.017% to 0.03% respectively.

It may be easy to give negative feedbacks/comments on someone's female shiro utsuri but generally speaking it is still the top 5% to 10% of all shiro utsuri sold in the market. On top of that, do you have a better piece? If, yes how much did you pay for it? Out of how many shiro utsuri you bought are show winners? In a nutshell,in order to successfully keep good adult shiro utsuri from tosai, it requires a lot of patience,time,effort,skills, and money of course.