Sharing 15 RARE, UNIQUE and BEAUTIFUL Koi
Fish Varieties with you! That is what this video is all about
Let’s get start quickly with the first variety! We kick off with a very special Koi, which
also won the prize for Most Unique koi at the Belgian Koi Show in 2021. This is a Ginrin Showa with a very nice head
pattern with an impressive skin quality. The colours are very natural and bright. A Showa has a black base and is actually also
born as an entirely black Koi. Over time the white and red develops and a
pattern becomes visible. On this Showa, there is Ginrin added to that,
Ginrin are the shiny scales that you can see spread out over the entire body. This is why we call this unique Koi as Ginrin
Showa. Another special Koi variety is the Beni Kikokuryu. This variety is also referred to as the Dragon
Koi Fish. Typical for this variety is that it has a
shiny skin, it is a metallic Koi. You can most easily spot that in the fins
and tail, but also on the head area. The base colour of this variety is white with
black markings on it. Beni stands for Red in Japanese, and hence
you can see the red markings, which often look orange as well. Very common for this variety that the pattern
over time slightly changes. Until the Koi are about 5 to 7 years old,
their pattern becomes more stable. Next up variety is a Kin Ki Utsuri. This variety is a Ki Utsuri, and Ki stands
for Yellow in that name. The base of this variety is black with yellow
markings on it. There are several other Utsuri varieties,
like the Shiro Utsuri which is white and black and the Hi Utsuri which is red and black. But, this is more then just a Ki Utsuri, because
it also has a metallic shine visible over it’s skin. We call it ‘Kin’, making it a Kin Ki Utsuri. A nice detail to know is when this variety
is born, it actually is completely black in the first days. The yellow will appear later. The better the quality of the Kin Ki Utsuri,
the higher the contrast of black and yellow needs to be. A very, very good quality Kin Ki Utsuri should
almost have no small black spots visible in the yellow areas. But believe me, that is impossible to find! If you know the Kumonryu variety, you already
know that these are special. A Matsukawabake is the scaled variant of the
Kumonryu. It is a black and white Koi and it is quite
magical. You have to know that a Matsukawabake can
change into anything. The black can disappear or become more intense
during the lifetime of the koi. Anything can happen! You could say that the Matsukawabake is never
finished. But that is also the reason why this variety
is so unique. You probably understand now that selecting
a good Matsukawabake is not without risk. When this variety is young, you also want
to make sure that there is not too much black on the skin already, because over time only
more black will most likely start to appear. And of course on this channel I want to give
you more examples of this unique Koi variety. Just to let you experience how different a
Matsukawabake can be. Some are almost entirely black and others
have very nice scalation patterns. Like this Ginrin Matsukawabake, every scale
is covered with a wrap of black. It looks like a nice reticulation pattern
around each scale. Which gives the Koi a kind of 3D effect, making
it even more unique. The chance of getting a Matsukawabake like
this one are near to zero. Then others are like this exemplar. Below the lateral line they have intensive
black visible, and above it almost none. To me this looks way less heavy, because more
white is visible. Even though this variety is so simple with
only black and white colours, it is still a beautiful Unique Koi variety to see. When talking about unique Koi varieties, this
is one of them for sure. I have shown this variety before in this video,
however I do want to show this Beni Kikokuryu as well. There is a major difference between the one
I showed earlier and this one. That is the intensity of the black color,
called sumi in Japanese. This Beni Kikokuryu is very light coloured. It almost has no black visible. This is very typical for this Koi variety. The black keeps changing over time, it is
called ‘Henka Sumi’ it changes from a light phase to darker phases and everything
that lays in between. The variety is very oftenly mistaken as ‘Doitsu
Kujaku’. And that is understandable, as the pattern
and scalation is basically the same. The Henka Sumi that is visible over a Beni
Kikokuryu, even when it is in it’s light form, reveals the real variety. You can spot the light shade of greyish color
visible over the white area’s: meaning it is a Beni Kikokuryu. Ochiba Shigure stands for ‘Autumn leaves
on the water’ if you translate it from Japanese. The brown represents the fallen leaves that
float on top of the water in the autumn season. It is a cross bred of the Chagoi, entirely
brown, and the Sorago variety which is entirely grey. But look at this Ochiba Shigure, it also has
shiny scales visible. And that is the reason we brought this variety
into our list of most Unique Koi Varieties. The base of the Ochiba Shigure is grey. And sometimes you can see a reticulation pattern
of a solid black line around each scale. A nice detail to know about this variety,
is their very kind character. They are tame and very willing to come to
your hands when feeding. The next up variety might be seen as a huge
goldfish for some. But for koi enthusiast they will know this
variety is unique, very unique and you won’t see it often. This is the Orenji Ogon. Basically an orange one coloured Koi with
a metallic shine visible. That metallic shine is visible in for example
the fins. We call it ‘Pika’ and it stands for the
visible shiny lines on each ray of the pectoral fins. Nice to know, is that this variety easily
grows quite huge. The variety Asagi is in itself already a special
variety. But this Asagi exceeds special, it is unique! Asagi have a net pattern visible of blue scales
on their back, on the lower parts of their body they have orange visible, also visible
in the tails, fins and gill plates. The nicer the net pattern or articulation
on the fish, the more lovely the Asagi will be. And now take a look at this Asagi again. Look at how special the pattern is, every
scale has a small darker area visible. It is beautiful. When you want to obtain a nice Asagi, one
thing to look out for is that none of the orange comes above the lateral line of the
Koi. Also no orange should be visible on the head
or between the eyes. Just take the orange of this Asagi as example,
which is truly unique. The variety I showed you before was a very
unique Asagi. This variety I would classify as a Hi Asagi. For this variety the base colour is entirely
red. Hence the name Hi, which means red. Each scale is marked with a solid black line,
that look like little moons. I have actually never before seen a Hi Asagi
as bright as the one I was able to capture here. It has very sharp articulation with solid
black lines and the red is super bright coloured. To obtain a high quality Hi Asagi, you have
to look for an Asagi that are as bright red as possible. The brighter, the better. Then there are different types of Asagi like
patterns. Sometimes the entire scale becomes black,
sometimes only half moons like this one. The half moons that are visible are most unique,
and in my opinion also most beautiful. This is a scaled variant of a Hariwake. If it had no scales, it would be called the
Doitsu Hariwake, which is also more common. A Hariwake has a white base with yellow markings
on it. The whiter the base is, the nicer this variety
will look, because the contrast becomes higher between yellow and white. To get a nice Hariwake, you should look out
for the yellow that is as light as possible. Yellow will become darker over time. The lighter the yellow is, the less likely
it is that it will turn into orange. Which actually is a common problem with this
variety. It is a metallic variety, you can spot on
the scales and also very clearly on the fins and tail that there is a metallic shine visible. This Koi here is small, but it is unique for
sure. It is a Doitsu Kin Showa, with very bright
colours and surely not something you will be able to see daily. A Showa is a variety that has a black base
with on that black base a white and red colour visible. This is not just a regular Showa, but it is
a Doitsu Kin Showa. Because this variety has no scales, we call
it a Doitsu. And Kin stands for the metallic shine that
this Showa has. This Doitsu Kin Showa is a special one. Not only is this variety already unique, but
the pattern on this exemplar makes it even more unique! When you translate Kabuto from Japanese, it
means helmet. The Kabuto has a darker glowing skin, compared
to a Mukashi Ogon and is a metallic variety. Hence you can see the skin shine and when
looking closely you can also spot Pika in the pectoral fins. Even in this video it is visible. Kabuto are not very popular Koi. However, over the last couple of years I tend
to see them more often in Koi stores. The challenge remains in finding a very nice
looking Kabuto, like this one displayed on a Koi show. An entirely solid black Koi, this is the variety
Karasugoi. The deeper and more intense the black color
is, the better. It looks very much like a wild carp that you
can find in nature. The Karasugoi is however more intense and
deeper black. It is a perhaps not very special in pattern. But you do not see them often, making them
a unique Koi variety to finish our overview with. This is a Beni Kikokuryu, that is unique since
it almost has no black visible. You would almost think it is a Kikokuryu. Which is actually a white Koi with orange
markings. But is surely is not, since the pectoral fins
do show some black visible in the middle, which we call Motoguro. I marked this Beni Kikokuryu as a Kindai. Which can be translated to modern. Kindai is often used for the variety Showa,
it indicates the Koi has a modern modern pattern with almost no black visible. While the more traditional Showa pattern has
heavy black patterns visible. If A special Koi that I did want to add to
my overview. The uniqueness and quality of this Ginrin
Asagi tells enough. This Asagi is a very bright and special one! It is the best example of a Narumi Asagi. The Narumi Asagi has dark indigo in the center,
which is surrounded by paler blue around the scale. This Asagi also has ginrin visible, the shiny
edges of the scales. Everything on this Asagi is perfect. The orange lays nicely below the lateral line
and is very deep in color. Also there is no red visible between the eyes
or on the head area, but only on the cheeks. A unique Ginrin Narumi Asagi that is perfect
in all aspects! An entirely solid black Koi, this is the variety Karasugoi. The deeper and more intense the black color is, the better. It looks very much like a wild carp that you can find in nature. The Karasugoi is however more intense and deeper black. It is a perhaps not very special in pattern. But you do not see them often, making them a unique Koi variety to finish our overview with. I have showed you 15 RARE Koi varieties that
I wanted to share with you. Please let me know in the comments which one
is your favourite and also why that is your most favourite Koi. And I hope I did give you a nice look into
some of the most unique Koi varieties in the world of nishikigoi. And if you want to see more video’s about
Koi varieties? Then make sure you subscribe and I will see
you in the next video! For now thank you for watching.
