Koi or shubunkin or frankenstein -- how can I tell?
 

I'm wondering if someone can tell me what I might have in my pond :-)

I've got a 300 gallon pond with 3 one year old shubunkin, and a
handful of koi not much older than a year. I have dozens and dozens of
fry in every size from an eighth of an inch to two inches. Many of
them resemble the varicolored shubunkin, but some have plain and
subtle marks that look much more like the koi. Is it possible for the
black and white and florescent orange shubunkin to produce a fish
that's solid in color?

I also heard that the koi-shubunkin sterile "mules" were olive black
in color. Can anyone confirm that, or is it an old wives tale? I have
a fair amount of these...

Thanks!
Teri

Koi or shubunkin or frankenstein -- how can I tell?
 

I'm wondering if someone can tell me what I might have in my pond :-)I've got
a 300 gallon pond with 3 one year old hubunkin, and ahandful of koi not much
older than a year. I have dozens and dozens offry in every size from an eighth
of an inch to two inches. Many ofthem resemble the varicolored shubunkin, but
some have plain andsubtle marks that look much more like the koi. Is it
possible for theblack and white and florescent orange shubunkin to produce a
fish
that's solid in color?

The fry are all shubunkins. All gold fish ( and shubunkins are goldfish) will
have "throwbacks" in every spawn. Theses will stay olive color or grey. The
koi are too young to spawn they need to be 2 for males and 3 for
females.....That being said you have way to small a pond to have ANY koi let
alone a "handful" You need a minamum of 1000 gallons for the first koi and
100 gallons for each after that....so if you have 5 koi you will need a pond
1400 gallons. Goldfish need at least 20 gallons per fish....how ever I think
that is still too many and would rather see about 1/2 of that. You will need
to start disposing of some of the fish soon......These figures are for a medium
sized fish.......Jerri

http://www.fringeweb.com/Ponds/JerrisPond

Koi or shubunkin or frankenstein -- how can I tell?
 

Thanks for solving the mystery. I can stop scrutinizing the fry and
waiting for them to turn into beautiful koi :-) I'll settle for
beautiful shubunkin. I only have a few of the boring grey variety

The fish, including my largest koi, are no bigger than 4 inches in
length, so my 300 galloon pond certainly looks roomy enough. However,
I'm putting in a second pond next week that will be over 1500 gallons,
so that should allow them room to grow. I took a pond tour a few weeks
ago and saw several ponds in the 500 gallon range that had footlong
koi, so it looks like there are a lot of people out there who aren't
observing the guidelines.

Teri