Origins of the koi carp

Koi carps belong to the huge family of carps that are available over the world. Found mostly in the continent of Asia and central Europe these fishes are exotic, good to look at and even good to eat. In fact in the Asian countries carps were raised mainly for the purpose of eating rather than for display in aquariums. However, these fishes have a very high rate of adaptation and can adapt to almost any type of water. As a result of this tendency, these fishes could be easily spread to other countries including Japan.

It was in Japan that the carp got the name koi. The common carp was usually bred by the Japanese people for food purposes and called it koi. From there onwards the name spread to the other parts of the world and now this fish is known as the koi carp. The Japanese were initially interested in the koi for the color variations of the fish’s scales. Slowly many new variations in the coloring developed and then as time went by the fish became a common place phenomenon and started to be used for food.

The most common patterning that you an find on koi is the red and white patterning which the Japanese call the Kohaku. But, the Japanese did something very clever; they never let the outer world know that they had developed such variations of patterning in the koi carp. So, when the koi was exhibited in Tokyo in 1914, there was an explosion for the carp and demands soared with everyone wanting to possess one.

That was the inception of all the interest in koi carp and slowly the fish spread all over the world, with the passion of collecting a breeding of koi carp becoming a common hobby of most people. Today over ten thousands over koi clubs exist that deal with the various issues relating to koi carps. Today there are many varieties of koi available, each different from the other and distinguishable by the patterning and scaling of the fishes.

There is the ghost koi, the nilgata koi, the dragon carp, the longfin carp and many more that you can keep in your aquariums and ponds. But inspite of all these, people more than often mix up the koi carp with gold fishes while you can see the difference when you spot the two together.

Differences between the koi and the gold fish

Although these two fishes look quite similar but there are certain differences between the koi carp and the more exotic gold fish. The two varieties were developed from two different species of the carp and when interbred they produce offsprings that have no reproduction capacity.

The visible differences would include the vast difference in size, body shape and tail/ fin configurations. Koi carp is invariably much bigger than the goldfish and their tails have a different shape altogether. Also, koi come in variety of body contours while the goldfish does not.

If you keep these in mind then you are sure to spot a koi carp from a goldfish in no time at all.