Koi

Asagi are blue koi, with a light blue base and darker blue center to each scale. The pine-cone pattern is described as reticulation. In young koi, look for light color, clear head (critical) and very even scalation from the dorsal line down. There should be no red above the lateral line on a the body of mature asagi, and no stray red. Red will increase as a young koi, so go for just a bit of red on the belly and some at the base of the fins. Americans tend to like more red, which is why you may see red on the tail and dorsal fins. Red should by symmetrical - hi asagi (like hi shusui) are a sub-variety with lots of red above the lateral line.

Asagi

Selecting an Asagi at an early age requires you to look at several aspects. First look at the body netting. It should be light at a young age, as the netting tends to darken with time. It should have a nice indigo blue type color. It may get too dark and lose the scale outline, if you start off dark. The netting should also be in very even rows. As there is no pattern on the back to fool us, one needs to see very clear outline around each scale. For the same reason avoid gin rin scales on a young Asagi, as these generally remain and can be distracting when the koi grows. Next look for a clear, white nose. Sometimes the skull shows through Asagis at an early age, but if the nose is white the head will normally clear up to. If the nose is cloudy, the head tends to be not as clear and can spring up black speckles.

Pectorals should be all or mostly red. The red on the pectorals generally pulls back to form a nice motoaka as the koi matures. The tail can be clear or have some red. Look for red eyes.

Hi on the side of the body, tends to emerge higher on to the fish as Asagi mature, so pick one that is down a little further to begin with. We would prefer to have an even straight ending line, where the Hi comes up the side. Then we would prefer a white line dividing the red from the blue net on top. On top of this, a nice even net pattern with each scale outlined uniformly. Check the shoulder region to make sure the netting comes all the way up to the head crease. It should all form in uniform rows down the body.

Early Asagi should have some red on the cheeks to start. The ideal finish of this red is to come up the back of the gill cover then along the side of the head to form a horseshoe on both sides.

Shusui

Picking a Shusui, follows most the same rules as Asagi, except, in this case, we are looking at a scaleless fish. So now instead of looking for an even netting pattern, we are looking for an even set of scales along the backbone of the fish. These tend to be that indigo blue color again and should be uniform along the back with no missed spaces. We need also to check for Mudagoke, which is an extra scale outside this nice even row. Muda means waste and it is a wasteful scale outside this line along the backbone. We do not want this as it distracts from the quality.

Original Shusui had the same Hi, only below the lateral line, like we discussed on Asagi, but modem Shusui can have red above the lateral line if it maintains balance from side to side. Finage and early head and nose color is the same for selecting Asagi. Shusui, because of the scaleless skin, are even more prone to having those Jyami or black freckles, which are undesirable.

Did You Know that Koi have Teeth??

Koi teeth are for crushing vegetation and crustacean shells while sifting sand in the rivers' bottom. The teeth are so far back in the throat that they are not a human health hazard. In fact, in the largest fish the teeth are so far back you couldn't reach them with your finger. The teeth project upwards from the last gill arch and crush against a diamond-shaped boney plate in the roof of the oropharynx."Teeth are constantly shed and replaced in healthy Koi. The teeth of the largest fish are almost as large as human molars and resemble them quite closely." Doc Johnson

by Nicole Lembke and Debby Hester

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