High Quality Showa From Isa Koi Farm

In this latest blog, we turn our attention to a selection of high-quality nisai Showa from the world-renowned Isa Koi Farm. At nisai, these are two-year-old Koi, kept in the same pond as the Karashigoi that we looked in a previous blog and video. 

Growing to big sizes

These Showa have been with us since late February and the pond has been used mildly for growth throughout summer, but not intensively by any means. These examples are measuring it around 41-43cm, when they arrived with us they were in the late-30cm range so they've had a small growth during that time.

The bloodlines of these Koi from Isa can really offer some big sizes longer-term if they're kept in the right environment and offered the right factors to promote growth; the right temperatures, the right food, the right filtration, and things along those lines. The bloodlines of Isa Showa can be seen in many places online and Isa Koi Farm has won many awards at shows in recent years, with some seriously big and impressive examples getting up to the one-metre mark. At nisai, these Koi are in the 40cm+ range, which is not bad at all, they have the potential to put on some serious size in the future.

Superior skin quality

You can see the skin quality of these fish is superior to most Showa, and Isa has been one of the top farms for Showa. Alongside Dainichi and Sakai, they really are up there in the top three Showa breeders in Japan.

With high-quality Go Sanke, you get that 3d fukurin effect, and you can see that displayed with all of these Showa. The beni quality is also really something special and the sumi has also got a lot to offer, you can see many spots of sumi developing on these lovely fish, it'll be really interesting to see how these sumi patterns can form over the longer-term.

This one specific Showa was featured in the Koi Talk magazine recently, there was a picture of this one in an article talking about Jumbo tosai Showa. With the maruten pattern on the head, it's a lovely example, a great fish really, and it has some great potential to offer.

The skin quality on good Showa is the main thing that catches my eye, we're looking for that high-quality beni, that deep red is what I find really nice. Finished Showa at later ages with that inky black sumi is also a very desirable trait, and on these younger examples we can see that the sumi that has developed. You can see it is a real dark, inky, colour in a lot of places, but there's more also still coming through which will maintain a high level of interest with these fish as they grow. With Showa the excitement is all about that development, you don't quite know what you're going get, the development is a prediction, and that's why you've got to train your eye to try and learn how they're going to turn out.

We’ve got a great choice of Isa Showa

These Showa are fantastic examples, and the shiroji on them is as white as you could ask for it to be. They've been cared for in our ponds and fed on colour-enhancing food. Some people will argue that this can turn the shiroji a yellowy orange colour, which can sometimes happen, but on Koi from high-quality bloodlines, such as these, they really maintain their white colour.

These are three of 10 Showa that we've had in our pond, the seven others are all equally impressive in their own ways. I personally selected all 10 myself, and I think they each have their own individual attributes that make them stand out. That's the thing with Showa, it's all down to wherever your eye likes. I find that from speaking to customers, a lot of people are into different types of Showa, with some people preferring the kindai style which has the more Kohaku beni pattern with sumi placements further up, whereas others like the heavier sumi Showa where you don't have so much red and it's mostly covered in the black colour. For me, I prefer the type of Showa that we have in this bowl. They've got a nice balance of shiroji, beni, and sumi, your white, black and red, and that creates a nice, well rounded looking fish.

Get in touch for more details

These Showa are just a small sample of the high-quality Koi we have available for sale. See the Koi for sale page of our website for some more examples, or even better, call in to see the Koi in-store!

At Perfect Aquatics we've got a large specialist Koi facility and we will always do our utmost to help our customers. If you're looking for a particular variety of Koi or would like our specialist advice on selecting Japanese Koi for your pond, please get in touch and a member of our team will be only too happy to help.