german carp/koi common?

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nativelover

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so i come home to find 3 new fish swimming in the pond. each about 3-4" long. turns out my grandpa went out and bought some koi. three are normal but one has big blotched scales...researched it, and turns out to be a german carp/koi. apparently the first carp imported to the U.S. for domestication. although it was the first , i hardly ever see them for sale and was shocked to find one in my backyard.

so are they common or rare? and was $10 a good deal?...well $10 is pretty good for any koi IMO.
 
They are fairly common. They call them doitsu. They are all decendents of cyprinus carpio.

Koi history
The differnce between Koi and Golfish is simple. Koi and Goldfish both decendents of carp, just two different familys. Goldfish are mutations of the Crucian Carp (carassius carassius) and Koi are from common carp (cyprinus carpio).

Nobody knows exactly where the Koi we have today originated, but it is common belief that the common carp (Cyprinus Carpio) originated somewhere near Persia and western Asia. The common carp migrated into China either through trade or natural waterways. It is not known when exactly when the carp were introduced into Japan, but it is believed to have been through trade.

The common carp is an excellent source of protein, so the rice farmers in the Niigata Prefecture started keeping them as a food staple for the long winter months. When the carp (Magoi) would reach 6 inches long, the rice farmers would catch and salt them so they would last the long winter months.


Around the mid-1800's, some of the rice farmers started noticing that some of the carp were mutating. Blotches of red and white were appearing on them. They decided that it would be to keep those ones out and breed them. Pretty soon they had developed distinct patterns. It is amazing that these simple rice farmers were selectively breeding the carp to bring out amazing colors and patterns, when at the same time, the only genetic research going on was Gregor Mendel's experiments with pea plants.

At the turn of the 20th century, Koi were crossbred with the scaless and mirror carp from Germany. The Koi Breeders called the new varieties, Doitsu (the Japanese word for German).

Koi keeping took off in Japan when, in 1914, some breeders took samples of different varieties to an exposition in Tokyo. People from all over Japan saw the "Living Jewels". Over the next few decades, dozens of new varieties appeared. The next big leap in Koi keeping was the creation of plastic bags in the 1960's. Koi could be shipped all over the world reliably and without high loss.

Today, Koi are bred throughout the world, but most people agree that the best ones come right from the Niigata Prefecture in Japan. Koi are one of the most sought after ornamental fish in the world. You can find Koi hobbyists in nearly every country.

info from Koi Acres
 
thanks....he/she is still pretty cool though. cant wait till they get some size to them.

also, swap meet has baby ducks $5 each......would this be wise?
 
one of the messiest birds alive, even if they are pretty cool. i imagine after watching friends a lot of people who bought them got very disappointed
 
I used to keep ducks when I was in undergrad. They lived in my room for about 8 weeks. Really neat little pooping machines. They became really tame. One is still alive living on a friends natural pond. The other was eaten by a fox.

Messy creatures, but great feeders for your monsters :).

Brandon
 
Serious Koi breeders use 95% of the young as feeders or cat food. Only a small fraction are "good". I am sure there are some operators that will sell anything they can. So a young Koi may be worth anything from nothing to $1,000 +/-; depending on what the buyer is willing to pay.
Humans have been genetically modifing, or selectively breeding for many tens of thousands of years. Since they first kept a baby wolf ( or goat, sheep, cow, pig,etc.); then kept only the "pick of the litter" for the next generation. It is pretty easy to imagine the rice farmers saving a few of their prettiest fish to put in the rice paddy the next season.
 
Ive got some shusui doitsu koi, are those the ones your talking about? Best looking of all the koi im my opinion (y'all can keep your showa koi ;) )
 
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