Koi Varieties: The Complete Guide

Koi are not one fish with colors sprinkled on. They are a set of named varieties, each judged against its own standard. Once you know how the varieties are organized, the names stop being a wall of Japanese vocabulary and start being a map — and every fish in your pond gets easier to buy, judge, and talk about.

This guide covers all the main types of koi fish: how they are grouped, what separates one variety from the next, what to look for when you buy, and where each one sits in a collection. Varieties we have written about in depth link to their own full guide.

How Koi Varieties Are Organized

Almost every koi name you will meet is a combination of four things: base pattern, color, scale type, and fin type. Learn those four axes and unfamiliar names decode themselves — a Ginrin Doitsu Kohaku is simply a Kohaku with sparkling scales and German scaling.

Shows group the types of koi fish into classes — commonly a dozen to sixteen of them — and judge each fish against others of its own kind. That is why "which variety is best" is the wrong question. Every variety has a standard, and the fish that meets its own standard wins.

The Gosanke: The Big Three

Three patterned varieties dominate serious shows, and most Grand Champions come from among them. They are the place to start, because everything else is easier to judge once you can read these.

Kohaku — red on white

A kohaku koi is white with a red pattern, and nothing else. It is the oldest of the modern varieties and the benchmark for all of them — hence the keepers' saying that you begin and end with Kohaku. With only two colors there is nowhere for a weak body or dingy skin to hide, which is exactly why judges rate a good one so highly.

What to look for: a bright, snow-white ground (shiroji) with no yellowing, deep and evenly saturated red, crisp edges where red meets white, and a pattern that carries down the body in balanced steps without crowding the shoulder or dying out before the tail. Anyone shopping kohaku koi for sale should read the white before the red — it is the harder thing to fix and the first thing to fail. Most kohaku koi for sale are sold young, before the pattern has finished tightening, so buying well means reading what is already legible rather than what might arrive. Our full Kohaku guide covers pattern types, bloodlines and buying in detail.

Sanke — Kohaku with black accents

Taisho Sanke (Taisho Sanshoku) is a Kohaku with black added on top: a white fish carrying red, with discrete black markings placed like stepping stones. The head plate stays red and white, with no black on it — that is the classic way to tell a Sanke from a Showa at a glance. The black takes years to settle, so a young Sanke is partly a bet on what has not arrived yet. See the full Sanke guide.

Showa — black wearing red and white

A showa koi is built the opposite way round: a black-based fish with red and white laid into it, so the black wraps the body and crosses the head. Motoguro — solid black at the base of the pectoral fins — is the other giveaway. Because the sumi is doing most of the work and the sumi is the part still moving, a showa koi changes more over its life than almost any other variety. Full details in the Showa guide.

All three Gosanke varieties come together in our Premium Gosanke packages, from $335 — the fastest way to train your eye on what separates them.

Blue and Netted Koi: Asagi and Shusui

Asagi — the ancestor variety

An asagi koi is blue-grey on top with a neat net-like pattern over the scales, red along the flanks and belly, and a clean pale head. It is widely described as the oldest of the ornamental varieties, the stock that most others were bred out of, and it remains a connoisseur's fish rather than a flashy one.

Judging an asagi koi carp comes down to the netting: every scale should be reticulated in the same way, in even rows, with the pale edge and darker center consistent from shoulder to tail. Muddled or patchy reticulation is the common fault. The head should be clean and unblemished — on an asagi koi fish there is no pattern up there to distract from a stain — and the red should stop cleanly rather than creeping over the lateral line.

Two practical notes for anyone shopping. An asagi koi fish darkens with age, so a pale, crisply netted youngster is the one to want — they rarely get lighter. And because an asagi koi carp has no bold pattern to carry it, body shape counts for more here than on a patterned variety: look for width through the shoulder and a clean taper before you evaluate a single scale. The full Asagi guide covers both Asagi and Shusui in detail.

Shusui — the Doitsu form

A Shusui is a Doitsu Asagi: the same blue-and-red idea with German scaling, so instead of the net you get mirror scales in limited rows — along the dorsal line, often the lateral line too — against otherwise smooth blue skin. Cleaner, sharper, and far less forgiving — every scale in those rows is visible, so any gap or misplacement shows.

An asagi koi carp is also the variety most often confused with a Shusui by newcomers; the quick test is the scales. Full net across the back means asagi koi fish; mirror scales in limited rows mean Shusui. The full Shusui guide covers identification and buying in depth.

Black-Based Koi: The Utsuri Family

Utsurimono are black koi with one other color wrapping the body in bold, alternating bands. Think of them as a Showa minus one color.

• Shiro Utsuri — black and white. The most popular of the three, and a superb contrast fish.
• Hi Utsuri — black and red. A good hi utsuri koi shows deep, even red against inky black; the red often deepens with age, and the balance between the two colors is what separates a strong fish from a busy one.
• Ki Utsuri — black and yellow, and the rarest of the family.

A hi utsuri koi is the one most people notice first in this group — the red against black reads from further away than white does — and a good hi utsuri koi holds that red evenly rather than letting it fade patchy over the black.

All three are judged on the same things: quality of the black (glossy and deep, not brownish), balance between the two colors, and motoguro at the pectoral fin bases. The full Utsuri guide covers all three in depth.

Single-Color and Metallic Koi

No pattern to hide behind, so these are judged almost entirely on body shape and skin quality — which makes them deceptively hard to buy well.

Yamabuki Ogon and the metallic family

A Yamabuki Ogon is metallic golden yellow with no pattern at all: one unbroken sheet of shine from nose to tail. The same idea appears as Platinum (white), Orenji (orange), Nezu (grey) and Cream. Judge the luster before the color — an even, head-to-tail shine is what separates tiers, and a dull fish rarely becomes a bright one. Our Yamabuki Ogon guide covers the family, including how to tell one from a matte Kigoi. Packages start at $215.

Chagoi and the earth tones

A chagoi koi is plain tea-brown — and it is the fish experienced keepers recommend first, because Chagoi are famously the friendliest and most food-motivated koi in the hobby. They are usually the first to eat from your hand, they grow large and fast, and their confidence teaches the rest of the pond to come up and be seen. Buy one and the whole collection gets tamer.

Soragoi (grey-blue) and Ochiba Shigure (grey with brown "fallen leaf" patches, a Chagoi crossed to Soragoi) belong to the same quiet, hardy group. On any of them, judge skin quality and body — with no pattern to admire, that is the entire fish. Our Chagoi guide covers the whole earth-tone family.

Tancho — a Marking, Not a Variety

A tancho koi carries a single round red spot on the head and no other red anywhere on the body. The name comes from the red-crowned crane, and the resemblance to the Japanese flag is a large part of the appeal.

A tancho koi is judged first on that spot and second on everything else, which makes it an unusually legible fish to buy: either the crown is right or it is not. Our Tancho guide covers how to judge a crown properly.

The crucial point: Tancho is a marking that can appear on several varieties. A Tancho Kohaku has the crown and a plain white body; a Tancho Sanke adds black markings; a Tancho Showa exists too. Only the Kohaku, Sanke and Showa bases bench in the Tancho class at shows — rarer bases like Tancho Goshiki and Tancho Kujaku bench with their own variety. Judge the crown itself — it should be a clean, well-centered circle of deep red, sitting squarely between the eyes, with sharp edges. A tancho koi with a slightly oval or off-center crown is common and much cheaper; a perfectly round, centered one is rare and priced accordingly. Our Premium Japanese Tancho Showa are individually selected show-grade fish, from $1,340.

Scale Types and Fin Types

These are traits layered on top of a variety, which is why koi names stack.

Ginrin — sparkling scales

Ginrin makes each scale reflect light individually, so the fish glitters scale by scale as it turns. It can sit over almost any variety: a Ginrin Kohaku is a Kohaku with glitter, judged as a Kohaku plus the quality of the sparkle. Not to be confused with metallic koi, which glow in one continuous sheen — see the Ginrin guide for the distinction. Our Kanno metallic and ginrin packages start at $225.

Doitsu — German scaling

Doitsu koi are not scaleless: they carry mirror scales in limited rows — along the dorsal line, often the lateral line too — against otherwise smooth skin. The smooth skin makes color edges look razor-sharp, which suits bold patterns and makes flaws very visible. See the Doitsu guide for the scale types and what to check when buying one.

Butterfly koi — long fins

Butterfly koi (Hirenaga) are ordinary koi with long, flowing fins — also sold as longfin, angel or fantail koi. Same species, same care, same color varieties; the fins are the whole difference, and they need a pond without snag points. See the Butterfly koi guide; packages start at $201.

The Rest of the Family

Names worth knowing when you meet them, most with a full guide of their own: Bekko (a single color with black accents and no head sumi), Goshiki (five-color), Koromo (a Kohaku with dark scale-edge crescents inside the red only), Kumonryu and Kikokuryu (black-and-white Doitsu koi whose pattern changes with the seasons), Kujaku and Hariwake (metallic patterned), Kigoi (matte yellow), Benigoi (solid red), Matsuba (pinecone scale reticulation), and Kikusui (a Doitsu metallic white-and-orange fish).

Which Variety Should You Buy?

A practical shortcut, and an honest one: buy the fish, not the label. Body conformation first, skin quality second, pattern third — that order holds for every variety on this page. A mediocre Kohaku is not a better buy than an excellent Chagoi because Kohaku wins more shows.

Beyond that, the variety does change what you are signing up for. Gosanke reward patience: their black can take years to settle, which is exactly why they interest keepers who like watching a fish develop. Single-color metallics show you what you are getting on day one. Chagoi and the earth tones grow large, eat from your hand, and make the whole pond braver. Butterfly koi are the ones visitors notice first.

Where to Find Them

Most of our koi move as multi-fish packages from named Japanese breeders rather than as single fish, which is the cheaper way into a variety and the better way to learn to read one — several outcomes beat one.

• Japanese koi — imported breeder stock, including the Gosanke packages, where most of our kohaku koi for sale live.
• Butterfly koi — the long-finned collection.
• All koi fish — everything currently swimming here.
• Premium and show koi — individually selected fish.

Availability by variety changes constantly, and single-variety fish come and go far faster than packages do. If you are hunting something specific, contact us and we will tell you what is actually in the building.

Whatever you buy, two habits protect the pond you already have. Quarantine every new koi in a separate, filtered, aerated holding system for two to four weeks before it goes anywhere near your main pond. And stock to the adult size your volume and filtration can carry, not to the size of the fish in the bag — koi grow into large animals, and crowding is the problem that causes the other problems. Our pond filtration basics guides cover the sizing properly.

Frequently asked questions