1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish!

[LynneNY]

I had never heard of a blue koi before last spring when a receptionist at a dr's office told me she had one!  Since BLUE is one of my favorite colors, I was thrilled to hear this.  She shops at the same pond store we do, and I've been looking there for one, and finally found some this past Saturday.

Here are our new babies!  I am thrilled to say that they joined the frey right away and have been swimming and eating with them from the start, unlike several that I purchased at a box store that have disappeared into the great black hole that apparently exists in our pond!

My husband says this one has "racing stripes"


"LET ME OUT OF HERE!"


Are you looking at me?!?


"It's in the bag!"


Are these bubbles or bumps?!?

[KatFish]

They're very nice.  Blue is my favorite too, though now I've been trying to go for bright colors like yellow.  One question tho, no QT stay for the babies?  Good luck with them, I hope they thrive for you 

[LynneNY]

Thanks Katfish!

I must admit that we don't have patience for QTing - we just keep our fingers crossed that all will be well.

As for yellow, I did get 2 baby yellow koi at a box store in late April.  One disappeared into that black hole I mentioned never to be seen again, but the other has been growing by leaps and bounds.  My husband is so funny - every time he sees the yellow koi he laughs and calls him the "submarine"!   So now of course, this fish is named "The Yellow Submarine"!  I just hope that by naming him, we haven't given him certain death, as the myth goes...

[miguynmkoi]

Blue koi!  Congrats!  Will this little guy keep the color?  My koi seem to change colors when I get them home.  Must be my water.

[LynneNY]

Thanks Annette!  We can clearly see the blue in our pond right now, though the guy at the pond store said as they get older, the blue tends to fade a bit.  The owner had told me a while ago that it's not really blue pigment, but black.  It just looks blue on some of them for some reason - don't know what that reason is, but the ones we chose are pretty blue!

[ThornyGardener]

Cute shusui and kikokuryu. You'll have fun watching them grow. Blues are a nice contrast to the predominantly red and white and black koi.

A word of caution: when koi get bigger those big dragon scales on your kikokuryu can get caught in the net. I have a 16" baby blue shusui with a few dragon scales on his side. The net tore one nearly off one autumn (I still shudder thinking of my panic trying to free the scale). He got lucky from that, though, and spent the winter inside healing while his pond pals had to tough it out in the cold.

[LynneNY]

Thanks for identifyling my new koi, Thornygardener!

I am not familiar with dragon scales?  Are those the things I was questioning as to whether they were bubbles or bumps?

[KatFish]

They're the large shiny scales on the fish.

[PondJoy]

Beautiful...what a great way to take pictures of your fish...so let's see..if I net them and put them in a bag, run get the camera, hope the light is just right and they don't try to jump out of the bag...and before they suffocate....I can snap a picture...   nope...I think you are more capable than I am....but in the bags they look so fresh and lovely....well done!  Wish I had thought to do that that last time I brought some home...

[tugo]

Really wonder how it will look when grown up. Nice fish:))

[LynneNY]

Well we noticed that the fish with the blue, white, and orange stripes no longer has orange on the bottom?!?  There are only a few tiny spots left.  Is this normal?  All of my other reddish/orange fish are still the same colors as when I got them.

He seems very healthy in spite of losing this color, and is still young.

[miguynmkoi]

Should be normal.  It may be the environment or the kind of food it's eating now.  I don't know.  As long as they do not develop black markings over the one time prettier colors I would be happy - I speak from experience 

[LynneNY]

Annette - what kinds of black markings did your fish develope?  I thought they lose black the older they get?

[miguynmkoi]

I think it's the composition of my water and/ or stress from the water that makes my koi develop black markings.  I remember partially reading about it somewhere but the koi I purchased where chosen for their colors, etc.  Then they started having dark coloring on individual scales....sort of like shading part of the scale uniformly throughout the body with lots of black markings on the head.  During the seasons you can see changes of more black or less black.  More black in winter.

Once when my DD was younger she tried to scrub the black marks off the koi.  Didn't work and she got mighty wet 

Details of koi when I bought them and how they look here today:  photo, top left to right: Shoji - Orange head white body; Preggie - red goldie (until about 3 years ago, now white); Tangy - completely tangerine color koi; Jackie - red and white shub/wakin (ok); Quicksilver - completely silver butterfly koi; Oscar - large scale totally orange koi; and at bottom Tiger - a very solid colorful & white koi, with Big Red - red sarrasa.  There is also another butterfly koi in bottom photo - Top middle, Skeletor - who used to be white and now has orangey-yellow and black markings over the white.

[Junie]

fantastic photos, LynneNY you are very lucky to have such nice fish.
  I am glad they are doing so well for you.

[LynneNY]

Thanks Junie!

Annette - thanks for sharing your pictures.  Your fish make mine look so very small still, and here we thought they were growing nicely - can't wait til they are the size of yours!  Though I did see the heron flying high overhead about a week ago.  It's the time of year when he starts coming in for a landing and a bite to eat!

[miguynmkoi]

Your fish make mine look so very small still, and here we thought they were growing nicely - can't wait til they are the size of yours!

 
You got 7 years?  That's how long it took the big ones to grow this big.  The smaller guys are younger by a few years.