Please judge my Black Oranda. All words welcome.

[ak47_chicago]

Hi Guys, Please judge my Black Oranda. All words welcome. Thank you very much. This fish is Thai Oranda.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/ak47_chicago/IMG_2753.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/ak47_chicago/IMG_2748.jpg

[Fishdork]

That's a beautiful fish! Body shape is great. Tail is nice length and will probably grow longer in proportion to the body as it gets older. Two traits that could be improved are a stiff upright dorsal and dark black down to the belly, but if you wait to find both of those, you probably won't be buying any black fish for a long time. I think of those things as an ideal to breed toward that is rarely reached.
Those photos are a good example of the white spots on the hood that kill so many fish. I believe the spots themselves are harmless and imply hood growth, but when people try to 'cure' a fish of these they keep adding medication until their fish is dead.

[demdamdemekins]

I really like this fish. It's got a great short body style without being too overly compact. The finnage is voluminous and nice, though there seems to be some odd pinching at the base of the tail. The wen growth is good, it looks soft and elastic without being overwhelming, and the scales are neatly arranged. If only the dorsal wasnt bent, and was held a bit higher.

[afertuna]

I like it too is this a young fish? one thing I have noticed the judges tend to go twards deeper bodies with the oranda's.I like the fact its not a goose head.and my gosh I love the tail its amazing. My friend Valerie won Grand at this years show here in Portland with a Thai Giant black Oranda.

[Jed]

Other than the dorsal being a little bent, I love this oranda.:love:

[johnatoranchu]

This is a standard black Thai Oranda of a reasonably good quality but,in my opinion, it has no exceptional qualities to pull it clear of the pack. When judging, I consider a fish's merits under 5 headings - Body; Finnage; Colour; Condition and Deportment; and Special Characteristics.
Body - first impression is that the body shape is good with smooth dorsal and ventral contours. Photo of fish facing to the right reveals a strange area where the tail meets the body (the other side is perfect). The difficulty of judging from a photo is that on the one hand this could be both a body fault and a finnage fault and on the other it might just be the way the photo has caught the fish as it was swimming so in reality this might not be a fault at all but a judge can only judge what he sees and I see this as body and finnage faults. I would score the body as 14/20.
Finnage - I have to be careful here because the finnage is very much shorter than we like to see in the UK but it would be unfair to score it with the English Standard in mind. I assume that the fish has two anal fins (it would be disqualified in the UK if it hasn't) and that they are identical in size and shape and that both point downwards and back (roughly at an angle on the clock face of five to five. If they don't then marks would be lost). The dorsal fin is soft and the tail is pinched. Other finnage is good. 13/20.
Colour - is poor. Black lacks intensity, turning to bronze below the lateral line and even orange along the ventral contour. 11/20.
Condition and Deportment - carries itself well and condition is good although hood growth fungus spots would cause it to lose points on the show bench.
17/20
Special Characteristics -which for the Oranda is its head, its hood growth. I would look at the three regions of the head, Cranial (top) development, Infra-orbital development (around eyes and jowls) and Opercular development (side, around gill plates) but most importantly assess the overall hood quality - how attractive is its face? The hood growth is generally OK but it does not excel in any area with the result that the face lacks charm and expression. I would score it at 11/20
This gives the fish a final score of 14+13+11+17+11=66/100 which, whilst my critique might sound harsh at times, certainly it does when compared to comments made by other forum members, agrees with my initial impression which was that it is an OK fish but nothing exceptional. Nevertheless with a score of 66% it could well be good enough to be placed in its class at most shows.
John

[pearlscale_fan]

all things considered, that is a really nice fish
i like the little puffy fish cheeks
hopefully it won't grow too much new headgrowth (white spots) or it might look a little unbalanced and the cute puffy fish cheeks could be overwhelmed
like your hamanishiki, too

[Watchmaker]

SPLIITTTTTTTTT Alright, Chris- Maybe all you needed to do was split the thread and THEN itll all be down hill from here Do you think you are going to remove the rents from the DT and setup a breeding system?

[judge]

Apart from the Dorsal Fin curling downwards I think it is perfect.

[pearlscale_fan]

looks like a nice fish, it does have cute puffy fish cheeks!
(hey, i see a pearlscale in the background there, don't know if you own it or took pics at the shop, but it looks pretty good too)

[pearlscale_fan]

whoops, look at that, I'm repeating myself
(I didn't notice I had already said that earlier) (need to post at more reasonable hour)

[goldfishsong]

i really like this fish :)
im also glad to know the white spots on the wen are ok ...
& im wondering ,what is a gooseneck ?

[BruceP]

AK...... You ought to show it at Darien this year. We'll probably have a big black oranda there to compete with you... :)

[bodyboarder]

Well I am no one to judge your fish as my experience is limited, but i have to comment that in my opinion it is a very good fish that will probably do you well in any of those Shows!! Maybe its not a grand shampion but it sure is a very very good fish.. I would love to own a few like him!!:yess:

[TheTruth]

i like this fish it appears to be a young male.keep us up to date on its development.good luck