CURRENT PROJECTS . . .

Line B – Produced when a Black Blush Veil male was found in the spawn of a normal Koi pair. This male was bred back to a Line C Koi female. Their Koi offspring have been designated as Line B. This is a new line as of Jan. 2003.

The fish pictured were placed together a few days ago. They seem to be bonding and are showing signs of putting a spawn down. The Koi female is from line "C", and is one of the better fish produced this past year. The Black Blusher is an interesting fish. He is the result of a cross-over gene which I suspect originated from a cross done in 1989. His parents were both Koi. He is essentially a line "C" Koi with a Black gene dominating the phenotype. I am looking forward to seeing their offspring. You never know when something very special will come out of a cross like this.

*Update: 12/31/02: I did get spawns from the Koi x Black Blusher cross. I let their first spawn go, but kept the 11/20/02 spawn and the 12/8/02 spawn as insurance. Young from 11/20 are looking good at this point. A small percentage of the young Koi are showing abdominal color as well as some ventral color. Ventral color still seems to be limited to the top quarter, but includes both ventral fins. The Black blushers are very pretty little fish. Knowing that their father came from a colorful Koi line, and their mother was almost solid orange, makes them valuable for future breedings.

*Update 7/26/03: The Koi x Black Blusher pair did produce some very nice offspring. The majority of Koi and Sunsets were very “average”. The Black Blushers turned out to be somewhat slow growing when compared to their Koi and Sunset siblings. I will probably not use the Blacks as future breeders. The photo to the left shows an example of the koi produced by this breeding. They will be line bred for now, and designated Line B (from Black Blush Parent).

*Update 9/04:  The pair at left is a line B female X Black Blush Veil male.  This female is a F-1 offspring of the Koi/Black Blush pair pictured at the top of this page.  She shows nice dark orange color, as well as abdominal and some ventral coverage.  The Black Blush male is a true crossover male.  He appeared in the spawn of one of my best line CD Koi pairs.  This pair has spawned and their fry are doing extremely well.  They throw 50% Koi and 50% Hybrid Black Blushers.  Both types of fry are vigorous and growing quickly.  I have discovered and am raising two more true crossover Black Blushers.  These fish are from two different Koi pairs.  I plan to grow them out and pair them with the best Koi produced by this pair.  Although rare, I am surprised at how often crossover Black Blushers appear in the spawns of these lines.  They did not appear as often in the early years.  Time will tell if this is a trend, or if I am just getting lucky.  The photos below are of the same pair.

  *Update 9/04:  The four month old  Black Blushing offspring from the pair above are growing out nicely in an old 55 gallon tank, which makes taking pictures somewhat difficult.  I didn't save any of the Koi from this spawn but I do have a group of younger Koi from a more recent spawn from this same pair.  I will evaluate their prospects for color in a few weeks.