Koi pics

[CometKeith]

@Rich8888ri and @CometKeith To me, that is a lovely fish! Love the colors — they’re so bright! Since I’m not a koi person, I’m ignorant when it comes to colors, patterns, and body shapes. So, what makes this gorgeous fish NOT be show quality, exactly?

The colors on this fish show a nice pattern of red and white on a black background. For a showa if you visually removed the black and leave the red then it should look like a very high quality Kuhaku (ie red spotted Koi). If you visually leave the black and take out the red it should look like a very high quality Ki Utsuri (black spotted white fish). Since the colors of red and black are pretty evenly dispersed on this showa most people would feel this is a pleasing colored. There are classic patterns of show quality Showas but the hard part is this is still a very young fish even at 13" and the black will deepen and hopefully the red will not fade. Showa is a black body fish with red and white spots whereas Sanke look almost the same but are white bodied fish with red and black spots. Also as the poster suggested the body shape and coloration on the fins influence the fish quality too. There is a lot to know how to predict how a fish will end up as it matures and it takes a lot of experience to be good at it. Typically breeders try to hang on to the ones they think will be really nice and grow them out in mud ponds so they can sell them for higher prices. Sometimes keeping a fish just an extra 6-12 months can increase the value 10 fold if it turns out to be an outstanding example of the type of fish they are selling.... or if it is a dud they just wasted a lot of time and money invested in the fish so they need to be very good at predicting how it will look as it grows. Now multiply this by 100's or 1000's of fish that breeders have and it is very important to grade their fish properly. That's why people talk about breeders or sellers so much. The better they are at what they do then your investment in your fish is more protected.

 

[Lisak1]

Oh my gosh! The silver on that fish is amazing!

 

[Rich8888ri]

HAHUMMM YOU DUMPED SOME COIN

Yes i did, the gin rin goshiki was the smallest at 9 inches but it cost more than the other 2 combined. It has potential show quality.

Cometkeith- that was an excellent post thank you.

 

[GBBUDD]

for the gold fish lovers a little edumakation

when It looks like someone used a magic marker on the fish and the color changes are crisp and sharp like this guy the price skyrockets this guy at 10 inches sold for a deal at 160 bucks if he was 18 to 20 inches he would probably fetch $2500
and who would venture to guess how much this guy is going for at at 27" and three years old

 

[Rich8888ri]

and who would venture to guess how much this guy is going for at at 27" and three years old

Humm 7k?

 

[GBBUDD]

I'll give the answer a little latter see if any of the goldfishers care to take a guess

 

[CometKeith]

Yes i did, the gin rin goshiki was the smallest at 9 inches but it cost more than the other 2 combined. It has potential show quality.

Cometkeith- that was an excellent post thank you.

Thanks Rich. I actually know more about goldfish, but I have been learning about Koi for the last year so I appreciate the compliment. I think Kodama is an excellent place to buy Koi from. I'm glad they were up and running right away after the Hurricane hit Hawaii. I have actually bid on a few of their fish in the past and thank God I got outbid! The gin rin is really pretty. I like metallic scale fish a lot too. Good luck with all your new fish!

 

[CometKeith]

and who would venture to guess how much this guy is going for at at 27" and three years old

Humm 7k?

I love edumakation. That's how we all leerned. So...that's not really a fair question. Did it win any medals or any of it's parents or grandparents win medals? That could increase the price by a lot. I'm guessing probably there are some medals in the family. The coloration on it's head is really good and very unusual so i can see a collector paying a lot if they really liked it. The fin coloration is perfectly symetrical and it has a very nice shape. At this age it has the potential to be a giant and over 30". I think I saw a fish like this at the local pet shop for a couple hundred bucks but think that might have been a little low.....
so my guess is $15,000-$20,000?
.... I have to add that I know nothing about the prices of this size and quality fish. Usually when I see prices in the thousands I run the other way!

 

[GBBUDD]

no winning blood lines I am aware of

 

[Tara]

@CometKeith how did you manage learning how to identify Koi fish. I have my first Koi fish this year, and for the life of me I can't figure out what they are. I wish I asked at the time I got them, as now I'm curious. Any tips appreciated as the internet is not helping.

 

[Jhn]

Nice looking fish. I don’t buy koi because of show potential, I buy ones that catch my interest. Used to pay attention to all the different types of koi, many years ago at my old house where herons couldn’t get at them easily.

However, I pretty much stopped buying koi, as I have grown tired of feeding the heron population the past 9 years. Although, I did buy a cool orange and white one with reticulated scales this past spring, but of course it was heron lunch while I was on vacation back in June. Reminding me why I stopped buying koi and just let the established koi in the pond be.

 

[GBBUDD]

for the gold fish lovers a little edumakation
View attachment 115282when It looks like someone used a magic marker on the fish and the color changes are crisp and sharp like this guy the price skyrockets this guy at 10 inches sold for a deal at 160 bucks if he was 18 to 20 inches he would probably fetch $2500
and who would venture to guess how much this guy is going for at at 27" and three years old
View attachment 115283

Ok no one else wanted to take a guess you were very close. they are asking 25,000 k for that second fish see now in my book the first fish I way more spectacular the second looks messy to me

 

[CometKeith]

@CometKeith how did you manage learning how to identify Koi fish. I have my first Koi fish this year, and for the life of me I can't figure out what they are. I wish I asked at the time I got them, as now I'm curious. Any tips appreciated as the internet is not helping.

Hi Tara. Really I learned mostly through the internet. There are a lot of pond clubs that have very good information on their web sites, also I watched a bunch of You Tubes about Koi breeding and Koi buying in Japan, and I looked at 1000's and 1000s of pictures on the internet to get a feel for the value of fish I might want to buy and read the web pages of the sellers to learn more about their fish. I recently bought two small Koi for $100 ea but I feel they have great potential. So I guess I'm very cheap and was looking at opportunities to save money and still get some nice Koi! So from this group I bought (B). It was only 5" when I bought him and he has already grown about an inch or so in the last month. It's a Sanke and I expect the dark spots to darken over time to be a nice black color. The other Koi I got is very similar with a slightly different design but the same basic colors.

 

[CometKeith]

Ok no one else wanted to take a guess you were very close. they are asking 25,000 k for that second fish see now in my book the first fish I way more spectacular the second looks messy to me

Actually I'm not surprised. The head of the fish has ideal coloration, but a very unusual design which would make it extremely collectable. You could see it still has a lot of potential to improve over time. Some of the black is just starting to come into it's own and will develop over time. Maybe overall it doesn't have a perfect pattern but because of it's uniqueness I understand why someone paid so much for it. This was actually a pretty good test because it doesn't fit the typical profile of an expensive Koi. If this was maybe 18-20 inches it would could been worth at least 12-15K so I'm not shocked at that price for this size fish.

 

[Rich8888ri]

@CometKeith how did you manage learning how to identify Koi fish. I have my first Koi fish this year, and for the life of me I can't figure out what they are. I wish I asked at the time I got them, as now I'm curious. Any tips appreciated as the internet is not helping.

I will tell you how i learned. I looked on ebay and searched live koi. They have dozens of auctions every day. When you look at it every day for months you start to learn the names of the different type of koi.. They mostly just have the popular ones though. You might have to supplement some others through YouTube. Search the internet for "koi glossary". That is a great way to start. It will tell you all the names of each koi and what there colors are. If you find a good one it will also have pictures.
It took me a year or 2 but i can usually identify most koi.