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- The best places to acquire a koi
- The gear you need to create the right environment for your koi
- Feeding and healthcare tips to prolong your koi’s life
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Meet the Koi
The keeping of koi is a hobby that can last a lifetime: well-cared-for koi can live for decades. The care of these beautiful fish is relatively basic, but they require an enormous amount of space in which to live, so koi are almost always kept in large outdoor ponds. Keeping koi can be a wonderful
and rewarding experience, but the high cost of the fish themselves and the construction of their habitat makes koi ownership a task that no one should enter into lightly.
Natural History
Koi are descendants of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio). They originated in China and first appeared in Chinese writings dating from around 300 CE. When the common carp
arrived in Japan roughly 1,000 years ago, farmers kept the fish in their mud ponds to supplement their daily diet of rice and vegetables. After several centuries, reportedly around 1840 CE, the carp produced mutations that formed the beginning of the modern koi’s colorful appearance.
These first “colored carp” originated in the Niigata prefecture of Japan, where fish farmers produced and kept the fish as a hobby (rather than eating them). A process of selective breeding over the following decades produced the many color and pattern variations that exist among the different strains of koi now available.
Appearance
Koi vary a great deal in terms of coloration and pattern, but in general they are very large fish capable of reaching up to 40" (1 m) in length. They have two pairs of barbels (slender protrusions covered in taste buds that help the koi find food), one pair on either side of the mouth. These barbels help differentiate koi from goldfish, which some koi can resemble.
As juveniles, koi have an inferior mouth—a mouth pointed downward that helps the fish feed off the bottom of the pond. As the koi age, their mouths gradually turn upward.
Koi Classes
Although all koi are of the same species (Cyprinus carpio), there are countless different types of koi within that species. The terms used to describe different koi are class and variety. Each class comprises one or many varieties. For example, Kohaku, Sanke, and Showa are all single-variety classes, while the Kawarimono class includes dozens of unique varieties of koi. There are also subvarieties within each group, with Japanese terminology to distinguish them from other, similar koi. The Kohaku class alone has distinct terms for two, three, and four-step-pattern koi; words to describe their scalation; and other terms that describe their markings.
This system can seem a bit overwhelming for people new to the hobby: for example, a Doitsu Sandan Maruten Kuchibeni Kohaku is a white and red nonmetallic fish
(Kohaku) with mirror scales (Doitsu), a three-step pattern (Sandan), a separate patch of red on the head (Maruten), and red lips (Kuchibeni). Fortunately, you don’t need to know all of this terminology to select a quality fish. But
being able to at least recognize some of the different classes of koi will help you choose the type that’s most aesthetically pleasing to you. The following are just a few of the different koi classes available for purchase.
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Bekko: Koi with a white, red, or yellow base and black markings are classified as Bekko. The Shiro Bekko, a white koi with black markings in the same configuration as a Sanke, is the most common. Other varieties include the Aka Bekko, a red fish with black markings and no traces of white; and a Ki Bekko, a lemon-yellow koi with black, Sanke-type markings.
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Kohaku: The first and most common koi variety, Kohaku are white fish with overlying red patterns in various shapes and sizes. Even distribution and high intensity of the red markings (hi in Japanese) are the signs of a good-quality Kohaku.
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Sanke: A Sanke is essentially a Kohaku with additional black markings that shouldn’t extend below the lateral line. (The lateral line is a narrow canal under the scales that begins behind the gill cover and extends the entire length of the body to the base of the tail. It is made of small sensory pores that can detect the slightest vibration in the water.) Variations of Sanke include Matsunosuke Sanke, which show faint blue-gray colors that gradually deepen to black; Aka Sanke, which have large areas of red uninterrupted by the pattern; and Maruten Sanke, which have self-contained red markings on the head and elsewhere on the body.
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Showa: First developed in 1927, the traditional Showa is predominantly red, with black and white in roughly equal proportions throughout the body. If more than half the body appears red when viewed from above, the fish is referred to as a Hi Showa.
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Utsurimono: Although there are three varieties of koi classified as Utsurimono, only one, the Shiro Utsuri, is common to the pet trade. A Shiro Utsuri is a glossy, jet-black fish with white markings. The amount of black increases as the fish ages. Utsurimono with red as the secondary color instead of white are known as Hi Utsuri and closely resemble Hi Showa except that they lack white coloration.
Personality
Koi are among the most social of fish, especially with regard to their keepers. They possess an impressive ability to recognize their owner from other humans, and it’s not uncommon for koi to come to the surface of their pond when their favorite human passes by (and ignore the presence of other people altogether).
Koi are relatively docile fish and can’t share a pond with more aggressive types. Their placid nature, coupled with their bright colors, make them likely targets for bullies and other predatory fish.
| Text & Photos Copyright © 2007 TFH Publications, Inc. | Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
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