New Design: Koi with Diamonds

I'm not sure about this design. My main concern is that it's just a picture, hardly any content as far as meaning or message. Although I will add diamonds in the image to hint an underlying message of striving for diamonds, vaugely carpe diem-ish, it's still just tattoo style Koi.

I will however probably push the line work. The process I use probably needs to change as I am aware that the process has a tendency to causes it degrade the realism in the final product. The flaw is using an outline as my guide and leaving it. It ends up craeting an image that is much like paint within the lines, where if I were to push the realism, I would rid the whole image of the outline and show proper shading, meaning that where the outline is, I would paint over it black, gray, or white, and let teh contrast between those colors form the shape, instead of painting shading with in the shapes formed by the outline. Know what Im saying?

I think I have my mojo back. I hope to have a very productive week.