Hi all.... My friend dropped off all the fish from her mom's pond today. There were 12 total. Once I was ready to add them with my goldfish I only added about 2-3 at a time so I could get a good look at them, but I am having trouble trying to tell which ones are koi and which ones are goldfish. All of the fish are about 2.5-3" long not counting the tail. Coloring on most seems very similar to sarasa goldfish, a couple of them seeming more red then orange. The ones I am questioning as koi seemed to have tiny little bumps on each side of their noses, which I am thinking may be their barbs (is that the correct word) But they are so small it was very hard to tell if it was actually something protruding or just coloration. There was another one who seemed to have unusually long fins, which I thought may be a butterfly koi. He was pretty small and hard to get a good look at, but his colors didn't seem anything like my shubunkins. Another one looked to have the barbs as well, but he was almost all orange, are koi ever all orange like comet goldfish? Another thing I noticed was that the ones I thought may be koi seemed to be a lot more aggressive about being in the net. Will I be able to tell overtime with their growth rate? Or will they grow at about the same pace? They all seem to be getting along the 12 new ones and my original 10, there is a whole lot of chasing going on in my pond right now.....
I wish I could include pictures, but I just don't know how to get my camera to take a good clear one with as fast as these little guys are moving. But whatever you can tell me to help me identify them that would be great. I don't think I will be keeping all of the goldfish long term. My new pond (under construction) will be about 1200 gallons, seems like 22 fish may be to many, especially if 5-6 of them are in fact koi.
I wish I could include pictures, but I just don't know how to get my camera to take a good clear one with as fast as these little guys are moving. But whatever you can tell me to help me identify them that would be great. I don't think I will be keeping all of the goldfish long term. My new pond (under construction) will be about 1200 gallons, seems like 22 fish may be to many, especially if 5-6 of them are in fact koi.