The different Koi varieties and which ones you should consider collecting

Receive a FREE 10-week koi fish survival guide The first 10 weeks are the MOST IMPORTANT to ensure survival and a thriving koi fish community. Enter your details below now and we'll start sending you this 10-week program right away. Name: Email: *your name and email address will not be sold, shared or disclosed to anyone. We respect your privacy*

Koi are ornamental fish and are one of the most colorful species of animal on the planet. Of course, they have to be specially bred and cultivated in order to have that unmistakable color pattern; koi, which are a variety of Japanese carp, are brown in the wild. There are nearly 20 main varieties of ornamental koi, all unique in various ways but all still from the same carp species.

Koi varieties are distinguishable by their colors and patterns, and also their scales. By and large, the major colors of the species are white, red, yellow/gold, cream and blue. A lot of koi species also have some black on them. Basically, the combination you will get—as to the amount of any color or the pattern shape—is limitless, but each variety tends to breed its own. People are always playing around with the types of koi, breeding wild koi with other types of carp for a unique fish. The ghost koi popular in the UK is a hybrid of a wild carp and Ogon koi.

Here are some of the main koi varieties, but certainly not the only ones:

• Taisho Sanshoku: This koi was first bred in the early 1900s, and it has a white and red pattern, usually, and also some black on it. It is extremely similar to the Kohaku variety, minus the black markings.
• Tancho: This variety is basically any koi that has a red mark on its head. A lot of this variety are black and white, resembling a cow’s patterns, and have a large red spot on their heads. Tancho is also known as Tancho Showa, Sanke and Goshiki.
• Asagi: This fish is a light blue color with a red underbelly. Other colors can be found on the asagi, but red and blue are the two most common.
• Ochiba: This is perhaps the most colorful of the koi, with orange and blue markings, a metallic set of scales, and glistening fins.
• Showa: This fish is red, black and white and has markings that resemble a type of snake at times. It resembles the Doitsu, but the Doitsu has more white markings on its body and can also be a tancho if it has a red head marking.

There are many more varieties of koi and, as you can see, there is little that separates these fish outside of color and scale patterns. There are four basic Japanese words to remember if you’re shopping for koi: “Hi,” meaning red; “Ki,” meaning yellow; “Sumi,” meaning black; and “Shiro,” meaning white.

As far as which is the best to own, there’s really no difference if you’re purchasing cultivated koi for your pond. The sky’s the limit and your choice is entirely up to you and the particular color koi you want. You should think about breeding, obviously. If you don’t want a certain type of koi, then you should ask what cross breeding could do. For example, if you don’t want a tancho to pop up, then maybe you should avoid Sanke and Goshiki varieties. Other than these slight concerns, the fish are basically the same.