Grading
One of the most important things we do here at Iheartcarp and probably one of my favorite also.
These are some of my C1 carp at their second grading before they go out again, everything is checked and double checked, and its all about what they look like and how healthy they are.
Size is important, but it is not the ruling factor why they are kept, unlike most farms.
I try to only keep about 500 fish a year, sometimes even less.
I'm probably the smallest fish farm out there, mainly because I'm almost a bridge from an ornamental Koi farm and fish farm for sport fish.
I often find, even after the strict grading fish the next year I'm not 100% happy with, sometimes something I've missed ( I'm only human) or slight body deformities which have happened ?
Sometimes when they have just not done enough growing.
As you can see we specialize in very scaly fish, but I do keep the odd less scaly if there something special about it.
You may of noticed some of our fish are golden/yellow and some the lesser are grey/blue, they have always been like this but we have only just started to get a few commons coming though and I have been keeping some of the blue commons as you don't see many of them around.
There are many key points that I look for when grading.
*Body shape (I don't want them to fat or with to bigger shoulders, I still want them to look like an English carp, and I prefer a long fish as well).
*Head shape (I find the more ski slope shape more attractive, than the more rounded or domed head shape of that old school looking fish).
*Scale pattern (I like my fish very scaly or very unique, they don't have to be all fully's just heavily plated, like warriors in armor).
*Fin size (Bigger fins are a must).
*Mouth shape (I don't want no twisted lips, parrots or extended bottom lips).
*Growth (Which is the number one factor of keeping a fish to grow on, on most fish farms. As long as they have gotten to an average size for that first year and they have ticked all the other boxes there kept).
*Colouring (Our fish in general say quite dark, we get the golds, slivers, and the very few browns and even the odd wild koi.
