The Hunt for the elusive true Blue Koi

[Fintastic]

The Koi in the photo was described as a Kasumi-Ga-Go the other is an digital artists depiction of one.

Does this line of Koi actually exist and has any one ever seen one marketed or one in person?

[kdh]

color was added in both pics. no such thing.

[cindy]

Only in my dreams, that and purple kittens.

[Bunyip]

Only in my dreams, that and purple kittens.

But there are purple kittens, Cindy (lilac, actually)

[rainblood]

Depends on your definition of blue...

[koiman1950]

The closest to "blue" you'll get would be a Soragoi with a slight tourmaline tint to the gray. Or a failed shusui which has no beni on it. I agree, both those fish either have an exposure issue with the picture or were color enhanced via computer.

[Loco4Koi]

I had and have a fish that used to look very blue when viewed submerged, but in a bowl was charcoal grey. A year later it still looks somewhat blue underwater, but not as much. It's a shusui with an oversized dragon scaled zipper. . It's butt ugly in a bowl now.. definitely on my auction off list.

[Billy Pounds]

the blue fish in the first picture is an Ochiba...and supposedly not a very good one....but I'd take it..Billy

[davidjensen]

What would a blue kio look like in a blue viewing bowl?

[RickF]

If I had the space for multiple large ponds, I would start a breeding program using some of Max's (Koigrl) "Sapphire" stock crossed with a Soragoi. From there, I would select the deepest blue with the least ki (sorry Ki Lovers) to try to get a royal blue shusui with a navy blue zipper, with anything other than blue being white and below the lateral line.

[inazuma28]

I don't know where i saw it, but it was one of those early pictures taken to document koi offspring in Japan and there were blue koi. They looked a lot like failed shusui but they almost looked metallic, and there was a purple one that looked lilac. I will look for the pictures. Dont worry if you don't believe me, i wouldn't either unless i saw the pic.

[inazuma28]

OK i cant copy the picture but you can look it up, it is call Zuiun, at least that's what the website is telling me.

[jimfish98]

Maybe a challenge needs to be put out there for the amateur breeders.

[rainblood]

OK i cant copy the picture but you can look it up, it is call Zuiun, at least that's what the website is telling me.

https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showth...nteresting-koi

[monomer]

I don't know where i saw it, but it was one of those early pictures taken to document koi offspring in Japan and there were blue koi...

Here's the picture... I found it in the Koiphen archives.

[DieselPlower]

I saw a fish that looked like the blue on just above at PetCo recently. i would have got it if i knew it was a big deal.

[Rob Forbis]

As told in Nishikigoi Mondo the Japanese koi farmers have sought blue (and green and purple) since early on, they have not been successful.

The powder blue seen in asagi/shusui is as close as koi can get with their current color producing cells (chromatophores) and structures. The powder blue of koi is a “structural color” not a pigment like yellow, orange, red and black. Blue in fish results from two layers of chromatophores: a bottom layer of black (melanophores) overlaid with a layer of partially reflective iridophores. The iridophores contain transparent guanine crystals that reflect part of the incident light with a fourth power preference toward the blue end of the spectrum. The green seen in fish (and iguanas) just overlays this blue from the two layers with a third, a layer of yellow (xanthophores), to get green. The difficulty that koi face in getting true blue, electric blue, is that although they possess melanophores and iridophores the iridophores are the wrong type(s).

[rainblood]

I saw a fish that looked like the blue on just above at PetCo recently. i would have got it if i knew it was a big deal.

Don't worry, its not a big deal

[jimfish98]

As told in Nishikigoi Mondo the Japanese koi farmers have sought blue (and green and purple) since early on, they have not been successful.

The powder blue seen in asagi/shusui is as close as koi can get with their current color producing cells (chromatophores) and structures. The powder blue of koi is a “structural color” not a pigment like yellow, orange, red and black. Blue in fish results from two layers of chromatophores: a bottom layer of black (melanophores) overlaid with a layer of partially reflective iridophores. The iridophores contain transparent guanine crystals that reflect part of the incident light with a fourth power preference toward the blue end of the spectrum. The green seen in fish (and iguanas) just overlays this blue from the two layers with a third, a layer of yellow (xanthophores), to get green. The difficulty that koi face in getting true blue, electric blue, is that although they possess melanophores and iridophores the iridophores are the wrong type(s).

Now that we know the problem, should be easy for scientists to fix. I figure if they can make fish glow in the dark a specific color, then this should be a cake walk, lol.

[rainblood]

Now that we know the problem, should be easy for scientists to fix. I figure if they can make fish glow in the dark a specific color, then this should be a cake walk, lol.

I much prefer photoshop to gene splicing