Identifying color/scale names of fish...

[ididntdoit99]

Still have the rest, plus a lot more. It will sound dumb, but I like all of the fish to look different so I can identify them. Hubby thinks I am wacked. I am able tell with just a glance when I am feeding, who is "missing"... aka save some food for the late arrivals LOL. Have a lot more to upload ... hoping someone wants to play name that fish for all us dummies LOL.

That is exactlt what i have done in my pond too! I try not to have repeats. I was actually given 2 koi a few weeks ago (hadnt seen them ahead of time, just told the guy i could rehome them) and one of them was almost all white, since i already had a platinum ogan in the pond already, i was albl to find that one a new home with some people who were just starting thier pond.

 

[capewind]

A quick search for the wording on shushui....


Shusui have a neatly arranged line of dark-blue scales along the dorsal line, on a pale-blue skin. The head should be light-blue and it should have red on the cheeks. The abdomen is bright orange or red, like the Asagi, as are the fin joints.

Several sub-varieties are found:
- Hi Shusui: where the Hi spreads up from the abdomen covering the back.
- Hana Shusui: similar to Hi Shusui but with another line of dark-blue mirror scales along the lateral lines.
- Ki Shusui: very rare, yellow instead of red with the back scales usually blue.
- Pearl Shusui: very rare, it’s supposed to have silver scales.

I have a standard koi that I call a BAD shusui, but could well be "any other variety" for all I know. He has NO red or orange at all... The zipper is also not correct. I thought I had a better pic of him, but cant find it. It is the little guy I am using as my avatar pic... When you view his sides, the blue fades down to a very soft cream color. Not sure I would call it even a bad yellow, it is soo light, but it clearly is not white.

 

[capewind]

I tell hubby it is the mom thing. No matter how many kids are at your house, you can see even out of the corner of your eye when one is missing LOL. We have a few Matsubas but there is just enough difference between them that I can tell them apart. Only one is a butterfly, so that one stands out as an individual easily, but with the others, head colors vary, or the amount of black on their back and sides (think the wording is supposed to be pinecone pattern???), I had two I called the twins (solid orange standard koi with some ginrin or metallic type scales), but in the last couple of weeks, have learned to tell them apart at a glance. AKA one got two minor scrapes on the rocks/lost a few scales.. the new scales came in white... and a few days ago, it looks like one is male, one is female... AKA one is very streamline in build, it is the other is plumping up with eggs;-) The twins are still small, only coming up on 8" or so, so the male could still be "female" (time will tell).

 

[capewind]

BTW Larkin, I dont know what to call your guy, other than really pretty!

 

[capewind]

I know some of the die hard koi folks have no use for the butterflies, and that is ok

We found another hybrid in the main pond... wish I had thought to get a pic before putting him into the comet pond... will catch the babies again to over winter those inside, but he was really neat looking.

Thought it was a white matsuba... when we netted it, he has metallic yellow only around the mouth, til about the nostrils... Fins all start out white at the body, and fade to black. Down both sides, metallic yellow... really bright... like it was drawn on with a sharpie, then a white belly.

 

[fishin4cars]

From all the books I have seen It's a hi bekko, But as stated, Mark calls his by a different name, ( I can't remember exactly) Orengi ?? But once you hear the name you know it is the same fish as the words describe them both.
I have another fish that is getting some debate on what it's called. I thought it was a Ochiba Shigure, But after several debates it's taken on a name I had never heard of until the debate started. Anyone care to take a shot? Hint, the Ki or yellow has a mettalic shene.

 

[fishin4cars]

I know some of the die hard koi folks have no use for the butterflies, and that is ok

We found another hybrid in the main pond... wish I had thought to get a pic before putting him into the comet pond... will catch the babies again to over winter those inside, but he was really neat looking.

Thought it was a white matsuba... when we netted it, he has metallic yellow only around the mouth, til about the nostrils... Fins all start out white at the body, and fade to black. Down both sides, metallic yellow... really bright... like it was drawn on with a sharpie, then a white belly.

If you can get a pic of that fish I would like to see it. The black on the fins with yellow highlights sounds really pretty, but also probably very unstable. i really hate how a small fish can have such beautiful colors and as it grows it loses so much. The butterfly koi seem to be even more suseptable of this than standards. Which makes sense as I stated eary in this thread, standards have been worked with for many years for that stable color. butterfly koi have only been worked with for maybe 20 years or so and very little for stability.

 

[capewind]

another beauty Larkin! What messes with me is a fish can look like one thing, and then someone will say NO, because it should have say 40% x color, it is only has say 20%, and because of only having that 20% it makes it xx instead. A good example would be those that are black, white and red/orange... aka I resorted to "calico" LOL.

I doubt I will be able to get a decent pic of this hybrid til we move them inside. From the top view, it looks like a white matsuba with a glowing yellow nose. The bulk of the head, and I call them "points" where the head meets onto the body are clearly white.. at least for now. He doesnt have the hump like the other hybrid we caught, but otherwise is near identical in structure and size, so guessing the same spawning.

I cant even attempt to grab a pic in the comet pond. In trying to catch this little brat, we moved almost ALL of the water hyacinths up to the comet pond. The surface of the comet pond is only 8 x 18 and is PACKED with the water hyacinths LOL. Now that the water hyacinths are out of the main pond, hubby wont let me put them back LOL. The QT is empty, so he wants to catch the shubbies, so our little seal (my fav blue girl who is still very fat) can spawn down stairs...

 

[capewind]

I made a small hole in the water hyacinths to feed the comets today, and the little hybrid came over This was a one shot deal, and a crappy pic, but here he is. I havent seen him since we put him into the comet pond. The yellow on his face has spread, but even neater today is he now has a stripe of GinRin scales on his back! So much for being a Gin Matsuba LOL. Yellow stripe on his side appears blurred in the pic. There is clear seperation of where the yellow stripe ends, and changes back to white for his lower sides and belly (both white).

 

[fishin4cars]

looks more like koi than comet. I see in hybrids that some can take more look of the comet some more the koi and both can be from the same spawn. Your baby is similar to ours but has the Gin Rin. That will be a neat baby to watch grow no matter what it really ends up turning out to be.

 

[capewind]

I was so surprised to see the gin rin stripe today. He really looks like koi to me as well, but there are not hints of barbels yet, where as I have another in the same size range that does.... how "late" can barbels start to develop? Maybe eventually if he/she survives we can throw it in with a koi of the opposite sex... if something hatches, it is koi, if they dont, it is a hybrid LOL I didnt exactly measure it, but is maybe 2.5 - 3" at this point, but with long tail fin... so smaller than you would think for that measurement... We have 3 babies, the same size... this guy looks koi... one has the hump and looks like a comet with barbels... and the other looks more koi in color, but comet in shape LOL.

 

[fishin4cars]

Sounds typical for Hybrid. I bet it has some but very very small ones that may never grow out. Sounds like it has Butterfly in the mix or long fin comet at least. They are great enjoyment for the keeper. I worry though if this is this common how many get back out and are purchased by Hobbyist unknowingly that they are hybrids. We have a couple of babies that could easy pass for koi you would get at petsmart, and I have one that looks like a common goldfish, that has barbels.

 

[capewind]

Length of fins dont help us figure anything. We have a total of 8 comets, 7 of which have long fins. Of the koi, we are about half standard, half butterfly. We have 3 gin rins, which are butterfly, and 2 standards who have a few scales that could be called gin rin, but this baby already has more gin rin to it that the two standard koi... No matter what this guy is, it will be interesting to see what it develops into. I wanted "variety" in the pond, and so far, this guy is looking "different" LOL. I just hope the hybrids ARE sterile.

 

[capewind]

Hubby caught a really cute mutt today. I dont know if this color is possible in a koi, or only a koi hybrid, but this guy really neat looking. The yellow on his sides are the same as on what I thought may have been a Gin Matsuba baby (which obviously we figured out he wasnt). His back is a bit more blue in tone than the pics show, but at least you can see this one well

 

[fishin4cars]

That one has barbels, I saw that in two posts. Right now it's looking like Ochiba, Possibly Doitsu scaled. hard to tell. It's a mutt but a least something different. Be a interesting one to watch for sure. I took some pics of a few of the babies in the 55 gallon, pretty sure all are hybrids.