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View Full Version : Koi or shubunkin or frankenstein -- how can I tell?


Teri
July 14th 03, 03:32 AM
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

Jerrispond
July 15th 03, 03:53 PM
>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 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?

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