Koi

Koi are not a carp? Or are they? This is a good question. Some people say they are and some say they are not. I’ve read many book on Koi and they say that a koi in a carp. Some carp in the beginning had red and blue mutations, these koi were selected to begin the long road to the beautiful koi we have today.  The first wild carp were widely eaten by the Japan.  They were first bred in the year 1820 and by 1870 the red and white (Kohaku) variety was perfected. Many of the other varieties that we see today were developed by the 1930’s, and new varieties are still being developed today.  It’s easy to understand why when we build our first pond and get our first koi how we end up with to many fish for our pond.  I know from experience that too many koi in one pond will keep the koi from reaching their full growth potential.  That’s not to say that they still can’t get quite large anyway.  But if you ever go to a gardening store or landscape place and they have a pond, they are keeping the koi for visitors to enjoy and they usually only keep a few koi in the pond, if they have been their for a few years the will be quite large.

Koi have been said to live to be 250 years old, with no really documentation. One documentation has been 90 years. I guess that means that you better think about putting your fish in your will!! Just a little fun history, did you know that Hitler had koi and he just loved them. Lucky for them they were not discovered by the Jews!!