Types of Koi Fish: Varieties, Names and How to Tell Apart

There are more than 100 types of koi, but most fish you will see belong to about a dozen well-known varieties. Wikipedia cites the Japanese breeders' association Zen Nippon Airinkai, which counts more than 100 varieties sorted into 16 groups. The UK retailer Complete Koi also says there are over 100 and describes 24 that are true or regularly seen classifications.

Koi are ornamental forms of the common carp. Systematic breeding began in the 1820s in the Nijumurago area of Niigata Prefecture, and the name nishikigoi (brocaded carp) came into use in the 1910s (Wikipedia). Complete Koi dates wider public attention to an exposition in Tokyo in 1914.

These ten varieties appear in every guide we checked (Wikipedia, Blue Ridge Koi & Goldfish, Complete Koi):

• Kohaku: white body with red markings. Complete Koi calls it the king of koi and says it fetches the highest auction prices
• Taisho Sanke (Sanke): a Kohaku with small black markings, called sumi, added on the white
• Showa Sanshoku (Showa): a black fish with red and white markings; the black wraps around the body and reaches the head (Blue Ridge)
• Utsurimono: black with white (Shiro Utsuri), red (Hi Utsuri) or yellow (Ki Utsuri) markings
• Bekko: white, red or yellow body with black spots on the back (Wikipedia)
• Asagi: blue, net-patterned back with red or orange on the belly, cheeks and fins
• Shusui: a scaleless Asagi with a single row of large scales along the back; created in 1910 by crossing Asagi with German mirror carp (Wikipedia)
• Tancho: any koi with one red patch on the head and none on the body (Wikipedia)
• Ogon: a metallic koi of one colour, such as Platinum Ogon (white) or Yamabuki Ogon (yellow)
• Chagoi: brown to bronze, the friendliest variety and the easiest to hand-feed (Blue Ridge; Complete Koi)

Beyond the top ten, Blue Ridge Koi & Goldfish and Complete Koi describe these:

• Goromo (Koromo): a Kohaku whose red scales have blue or black edges; Budo Goromo looks like bunches of grapes
• Goshiki: the name means five colours; a Kohaku-style pattern over a dark net pattern
• Kujaku: metallic white with a black net pattern and red, orange or yellow patches
• Hariwake: metallic white with yellow or orange patches; the scaleless form is called Kikusui
• Matsuba: one metallic base colour with a black net pattern; Gin (white), Ki (yellow) or Aka (red)
• Kumonryu: scaleless black and white; the pattern can change a lot during the fish's life, from almost all white to almost all black
• Kikokuryu and Kin Kikokuryu: metallic versions of Kumonryu; Blue Ridge calls Kin Kikokuryu the newest variety
• Soragoi and Ochiba: grey Soragoi is as tame as Chagoi; Ochiba combines grey with bronze
• Benigoi: entirely red or orange
• Yamato Nishiki: a metallic Sanke

Two fish often sold as koi are hybrids rather than true nishikigoi: ghost koi (Ogon crossed with wild carp) and butterfly koi (koi crossed with Asian carp, with long flowing fins) (Wikipedia).

Most koi names are plain descriptions, so learning a few words lets you decode a label:

• Shiro means white and Hi means red (Complete Koi); Ki is yellow, as in Ki Utsuri
• Sumi is the name for black markings (Wikipedia)
• Utsuri means reflections (Complete Koi)
• Gin Rin means gold and silver scales, and marks a fish with sparkling scales (Wikipedia)
• Doitsu marks a scaleless or partly scaled fish from crosses with German carp (Wikipedia)
• Tancho means a single red patch on the head; Blue Ridge notes it is prized for resembling the red-crowned crane
• Shusui means autumn green, Chagoi tea-coloured, Goshiki five colours, and Ochiba Shigure autumn leaves falling on water (Wikipedia; Blue Ridge)

So a Gin Rin Doitsu Showa is a Showa with sparkling scales on a mostly scaleless body. For the cultural meaning of koi and what they are worth, see our koi fish page.

These three cause most mix-ups. Look at the fish from above, the way koi are judged:

• Only red and white: Kohaku
• White is the main colour, with small black spots on top and little or no black on the head: Sanke
• Black is the main colour, wrapping around the body, often on the head and at the base of the pectoral fins: Showa (Blue Ridge; Complete Koi)

A red patch on the head only, with no red on the body, turns any of these into a Tancho version. FishLens suggests a name from one photo. Take the photo from above in daylight without surface glare.

No source we checked ranks colours by rarity. The closest statements: Blue Ridge Koi & Goldfish calls Ki Utsuri, yellow on black, by far the rarest type of Utsuri, and names Kin Kikokuryu as the newest variety. Complete Koi notes that new variants are created regularly and not all are recognised in competition.

Beauty is a matter of taste, but the market has a clear favourite. Complete Koi calls Kohaku the king of koi and reports that a prize-winning Kohaku, S Legend, sold for £1,400,000; Wikipedia reports that a koi sold for about $2 million in 2018, the highest recorded price.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. Every number names the organisation it comes from, and where sources disagree we say so instead of picking one silently. Prices and rules are given with the date we checked them; they change, so confirm before you rely on them. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.