Started second selection on the kohaku

Been preparing for over a week and I finally reached the point where I could actually start selecting.

The prep has been:

- change the bottom drain on the tank to a flat, flush drain cover instead of the vertical pipe
- jet wash one of my large cage nets, to get the eggs off from the last spawning.; then set it up in one of the fry tanks
- seine net the pond several times to collect all the fish and move them into the cage net. There must be well over a thousand moved, and I counted around 10 that I'm quite excited about. Just need to find them again when I do the selections.
- then.... divide the cage net into two sections. the unselected portion, and another portion to take the discards.

Just so you know, the pipe hides my six pack. Getting in was the quickest way to change the drains - and the water was a balmy 25 degrees when I took the plunge

Moving the fish from the seine net (on the left) and into a cage net (on the right)

A typical pan net's worth of fish to select through. Big variation in size - the smallest ones are probably escapees from a cage net holding the 1 inchers that we're moving on. The largest one was almost 4 inches long. All of the fish in this pan net were moved into the discard cage net - none of them are keepers :-( Reason being - there needs to be white on the nose for me to keep a fish at this stage.
From the first 265 reviewed, just 15 to be kept until the next selection.

Here are a few of the ones from that first batch that I'm growing on - these were moved back into the pond they came from.

A bit small, , but it has a white nose and potentially a reasonable pattern. Selection decision - hand on to this one until 3rd selection

again, a bit on the small side - but nice white nose and red pattern mostly above the lateral line. I tolerated the red in the fins at this stage. The red on the eye is a shame, but may be I'm being too picky. Selection decision - hold on to this one until 3rd selection; monitor red in fins.

this one was a good size. nice wide mouth, and good shine line across the dorsal ridge. white nose, red above the lateral line, no red in the fins. all good... except - the rear half of the fish has far too little red pattern. Selection decision - hang on to this one - and see how the pattern develops. I think this one could grow quite well,.

I found one particularly unusual koi - it's red all over, with a large black spot on its head; basically a black tancho spot. I couldnt get a picture of it with light fading... but I'm holding on to it, and it one to keep an eye out for at the next selection.