1988-1994- During this period a partnership was formed between myself, and another well known breeder. We ran over 400 tanks while doing every conceivable angelfish cross. Sales were wholesale, retail, and mail order. During the partnership and after the business was split, the goal of developing the koi angel never diminished.

1990-1992- The decision was made to attempt something that, to my knowledge, hadn't been done before. I wanted to know what would happen to my Koi lines if they were outcrossed to a Wild Scalare.

A group of Wild Scalare were brought in and placed in quarantine. After a period of four months they were given a planted 90 gal tank and a year to mature. After the first pair formed, one obvious male was separated and placed with a group of domestic females. He eventually selected a very feisty Standard Smokey female. She was determined to spawn. In a very short time he was the father of roughly 400 fry. Half were Smokey. (Sm/+) Half were wild type (+/+). All fry displayed the wild schooling characteristics of their father. The difference between these wild fry and domestics was obvious. I clearly remember watching them with some degree of excitement. Now it was necessary to pair him with a Koi. This was easier said than done. To make a long story short, this particular male would not accept a Koi female. He destroyed them.

After numerous attempts, he finally bonded with a beautiful Black Blusher (D/Gm-S/S). She was an excellent choice. Her confirmation and finnage were flawless. I couldn't have been happier with the pair or the resulting fry pictured below. These are examples of some of the 50% Wild Scalare/Koi. Half were marbled ghosts (Gm/+-S/+), the other half were Stripeless Blacks. (D/+-S/+) Most showed very little marbling due to the Gm gene.

1992-1994- Sibling crosses in the wild line produced some very beautiful and different looking Koi. Body shape, size, and finnage were outstanding. Color, however, reverted back to the almost totally white body. Crown color was a deep rich orange, but definitely a step back.

1995- Time to cross the Wild line back into the best of Line "C". Two females which very closely resembled those pictured on the previous page, were selected and bred to my best extended color males. How often do we plan a line cross, only to be disappointed by the results? Not this time! The fry resulting from the Wild x Domestic were the best that I had ever seen. Color seemed to jump out at you. Color spread on some fish extended from nose, across the top of the fish to include the caudle peduncle, and bled down through the gills. In some cases the entire top half of the fish was solid orange. You have to remember, this was 1995!

This was a very big step in the right direction. These fish were so good that I didn't move forward to produce another generation for four years. A number of these beautiful fish were sold mail order under my "New Breeds" hatchery name. Many more were sold throughout New York State and Pennsylvania through retail and wholesale outlets.

It wasn't until 1999 that a spawn produced some very special fish. This female and a sibling male were very close to solid orange. The deep orange abdominal area was something that had never been seen before, at least in my experience. The female was slightly better than the male, but both were exceptional and the best that I had produced in almost 30 years of angelfish breeding.

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