The Many Colors Of Koi

The Japanese are known around the world for the selective Koi fish breeding, creating the vivid color patterns we see today. Owing to their amazing range of colors and patterns, Koi fish are popular pet fish and highly valued by their owners.

 

Koi fish should have bright colors: if you have a red koi, it should be a bright scarlet and black koi should be a deep shiny black. Dull black, scales, spots or gray marks reflect poorly on the fish. A white koi that is not pure white but speckled with grey indicates poor health.

 

The vivid color of a koi fish is an indicator of good health and if koi are unhealthy or exposed to bad water conditions, their bright colors will become dull. When looking to buy a koi fish, understanding how a koi’s color should look will help you pick a healthy fish. When caring for your own koi, carefully examine the koi’s color often to make sure you are taking appropriate care of them.

 

Koi are available in many beautiful colors. Some of the most common colors are red, white, black, yellow, blue and cream. The Japanese used specific words to describe Koi colors and characteristics.

 

Specialist Koi breeders have identified and named several categories of Koi, the most popular being the Gosanke category. This category includes the Kohaku, Taisho Sanshoki and Showa Sanshoki types of koi.

Kohaku koi are pure white and have red markings along their body. When looking for a Kohaku koi, watch out for a pure snowy white with distinct red markings over 50 to 70 percent of the body.

 

Taisho Sanshoki koi (also known as Taisho Sanke or just Sanke) are white with red and black markings. When looking to buy a Sanke koi, watch out for a snowy pristine white coloring with deep red and black markings that have distinct edges as this indicates a healthy fish.

 

The Showa Sanshoki koi (also known as just Showa) are similar to the Sanke variety in that they are also white, red and black. Unlike the Sanke, however, the Showa is mainly black with red and white markings.

 

The less common koi varieties have their own color markings. For example, the Ogon koi come in a range of different colors but have no markings or patterns; their bodies consist of only one hue. More koi varieties are being developed, with ghost koi and butterfly koi being developed in 1980 and becoming very popular in the UK and USA recently.

 

You can improve or brighten the color of your koi by feeding them a rich diet including shrimp, marigold, plankton and blue-green algae (known as Spirulina). You can find commercial preparations including all these that are specifically produced to enhance koi coloring.

 

You can feed your koi frozen foods such as brine shrimp and daphnia to the same effect. All these foods have a high concentration of carotenoid pigments, which are the major pigments in koi skin.

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