They have never studied biology or swotted up on the physiology of fish. And yet they know more than many an "expert" in the carp/koi sector! Passing on their craft from generation to generation can sometimes replace “studied knowledge" entirely. Serendipity can also help.
The well-known kujaku breeder Yasuaki Kaneko’s father started koi breeding because a customer couldn’t pay cash for his car repair and brought him five koi as a salary. He learned diligently from the other koi breeders in the Ojiya area and became better and better. Thousands of koi passed through his hands in selections. He passed the experience on to his son, who now runs the Kaneko koi farm. For colouring, father Kaneko tried various types of food. From the very cheap pellet food bought from a producer down in the valley to the most expensive food from a well-known Japanese brand. The most expensive food resulted in better growth and more beautiful colours than the cheap versions. But the clean colour separation from red to white was still not always as good as he would have liked it. He didn’t have a biological background, of course, so he had never seen or heard of different forms of carotenes. When the JBL biologists met his son Yasuaki Kaneko, he told them about the problem of colour separation. An analysis of the feed composition revealed that they always used "normal" carotene to intensify the colours in the koi. This canthaxanthin E161g is technically produced, is inexpensive and is used, for example, for the red colouring of salmon trout. JBL provided Kaneko with a prototype of the JBL PROPOND food range in which a very expensive astaxanthin E161j is used. This comes from krill and spirulina - so it is always of natural origin.
After 6-8 weeks Kaneko could already see differences in the colouration of his kujakus. The red-white separation became much better and JBL decided to do without the cheap canthaxanthin completely and to use only astaxanthin E161j for the JBL PROPOND range and especially, of course, for the JBL PROPOND COLOR! Thanks to the Kaneko family, whose experience has helped to ensure that everyone can now keep perfectly coloured koi...
© 27.05.2020
