Koi · Domesticated carp whose Niigata colour mutations became a global pond aesthetic -- not a wild goldfish substitute.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
LessMore
Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
No. Goldfish descend from Prussian carp (Carassius). Koi are ornamental common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fixed in Niigata. The atlas seeAlso cannot point at goldfish because that id is not in the taxonomy.
Colour mutants were kept in Yamakoshi rice-terrace ponds in the early 1800s. The 1914 Tokyo Taisho exhibition took them national.
The ZNA-centred championship that still sets kohaku, sanke and showa as the Gosanke core classes.
After the 1960s export boom, Israeli and US growers scaled food-and-ornamental carp. Butterfly fins are largely a non-Niigata aesthetic.
Koi herpesvirus outbreaks from the late 1990s killed whole collections. Quarantine and certified-free stock became the new entry ticket.
Common carp are invasive in many rivers and lakes. A show pond is secure; a flood overflow is not a garden anymore.
Icons here are not a ranking of living animals as best. They are the Wikipedia-titled faces a later chapter can attach images to.
Stats are relative 0-100 marks inside this type, for comparison on the page, not a global scoreboard.
Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0
The brocaded carp as a named aesthetic.
Nishikigoi (ornamental Cyprinus, Japan) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
yoshi s · CC BY-SA 3.0
Terrace ponds that fixed kohaku lines.
Yamakoshi / Niigata (origin villages, Japan) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0
White-and-red foundation pattern.
Kohaku (show class, Japan) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0
Hobby body that wrote modern show rules.
Zen Nippon Airinkai (ZNA, Japan) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
The calendar that prices a champion.
All Japan Koi Show (championship, Japan) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
George Chernilevsky · CC BY-SA 3.0
Warm-water volume beside Niigata prestige.
Israeli koi farms (1970s-, Israel) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
新潟地方気象台 · CC BY 4.0
Origin ponds wrecked and rebuilt as heritage.
Chuetsu earthquake recovery (2004, Japan) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Pierre-Étienne Nataf · CC BY-SA 3.0
Impressionist water garden often mislabelled as a koi origin.
Monet Giverny pond (cultural cross-read, France) is filed here as a dated individual, programme or portrayal -- not as a rank of the living animal.
“Icons teach constraints: law, habitat and methods matter as much as a famous face.”
Stats are relative 0–100 marks within this species, for comparison only.
Toggle icons on and off — every bar rescales to the leader of your selection.
A judged kohaku is a cultural object. The same species in a river is a management problem.
Show prestige stays Japanese. Most swimming koi are now grown elsewhere.
Apex lamnid whose warm muscle, broad diet and 1975 cinema still outrun the tagging papers.
Overall 66 🐟Anadromous fishes that move ocean fat onto spawning gravels -- and into forests, treaties and hydropower fights.
Overall 63 🐟A warm-bodied tuna whose Tokyo auction prices and ICCAT quotas made a single fish into a geopolitical unit.
Overall 54 🐠Anemone-dwelling damselfish whose 2003 film fame became a capture-and-reef case study.
Overall 41 🐴Male-pregnancy fish — Hippocampus since Linnaeus (1758), dried trade, and CITES Appendix II (2002).
Overall 28 🐡Beak-toothed inflators whose tetrodotoxin made a Japanese cuisine and a genome project out of one family.
Overall 41 ⚡Amazon knifefishes whose stacked electrocytes taught Humboldt, Volta arguments and a 2019 species split.
Overall 36