THE BUTTERFLY KOI STORY...

[capewind]

I purchased from Next Day Koi and Fish Online R Us. I had very good luck with their delivery, and the fish. Good luck!

CE... I have bought a few from NDK myself, and have only had 2 complaints. #1 a couple were THIN,but when I looked back at the pics, it was visible in the pics, I just missed it the first time... fish ate well and it didnt take long to get good weight on them. #2 was in one order, I bought several fish (7-12") and they should NOT have been shipped in one box. To make it worse, the inner bag leaked. Had one who was in serious distress, and notified them and they were very good about it.

 

[outdoork9lady]

Country....you got me! My local dealer has one beautiful white with long flowing fins......so described, as I cannot get there. Bought it over the phone, a friend is picking it up and bringing it to me tomorrow afternoon. I couldn't help myself, it's your fault too. Once I saw that beauty, I had to call and "just see"....I thought I would get a no, or not quite, or .... but they had one. There were some others but not with long flowing fins...big sigh. :heartpump:

 

[mrsclem]

I have always had butterfly koi and I love them. Hard to find gin rin in butterfly but there are some out there. Our one pond is all gin rin so hoping for the pattern to show up in the offspring. We purchased a lot of fish thru an imported this year. He had what he called japanese long fins. The fins are twice the length of the butterfly koi and very narrow. Not sure if this is a defect or a new line. Can't wait till spring to see the changes. A lot of my customers do not want butterfly koi.Their loss in my opinion!

 

[capewind]

I love the gin rins too... will attach pics of the 3 gin rins we got off of ebay in June.... The two "white" ones were just 5" and the "black" one was about 7"... So far, they have all grown 2-3"... Cant wait til they are a couple years or so old and start getting some size to them.

 

[HARO]

I have one of Dr. Axelrod's publications in my library, dated 1987, which has pictures of long-finned koi. That means they were around at least 25 years ago, although the colours we see today were non-existant. They ranged from coppery green to a goldfish orange.
John

 

[capewind]

I would STILL take both of those colors;-)

 

[ididntdoit99]

Ididntdoit99, if you want to see lots of color variations and learn about them, go on Ebay and just search live koi or live butterfly koi. That's where I looked for fish for sale, then searched their color descriptions, and made my "cheat sheet" for the color names and descriptions. I still have a hard time determining most of the color names, as different people name fish the same color, when they look different!
I bought about 10 4-6" Gin Rins last December, and am thrilled with them! I have not lost a one, and am hoping someday to have some Gin Rin offspring. They do indeed look like "diamond" scales. Very shiny. In fact, when I look in my koi pond, I'm really happy with the color combinations I have acquired. The only fish that has been extremely hard to acquire is the Showa or Sanke, both of which are tri colored, and both of which are expensive when you locate a nice one!
Good luck finding a local breeder, but if you don't find one, remember this: With the gas prices, if you can find the colors you want, pay the $45 shipping and order several from the same breeder! I purchased from Next Day Koi and Fish Online R Us. I had very good luck with their delivery, and the fish. Good luck!

I glanced through there the other day, I couldn't find any that looked like those 2. Oh well, i have 3 butterfly's now, and i should really refrain from adding any more koi to the pond. This is my favorite butterfly




And this a picture of my all white one, hes not a butterfly though. This guy must have some good genes, this is from when i first got him this summer, but he already as big as some of my koi have had for three years, hes going to be a monster.


.

 

[mrsclem]

Has anyone else that has butterfly noticed they seem to grow faster and larger than standard koi? The only ones we have had that got to 3' have been butterfly. I'm guessing it's that extra tail length.

 

[ididntdoit99]

hmm i guess i cant say because none of mine are full grown yet. But i can say that we bought that silver one i posted above at the same time as a yellow butterfly. A couple weeks before that, we bought a silver and a yellow standard koi pair.

So all 4 of them were relatively the same size, but the yellow standard and the silver butterfly have more than doubled in size this summer, and the other 2 aren't much bigger than they were. Kind of weird how that worked out.

 

[pondlover]

I love my butterfly Koi. I have no idea what kind they might be. Since this is our first full year with a pond, it's all new and exciting. When we discovered 4 fry in the pond and to see that 2 of them are definitely Butterfly babies.!!! The little buggers swim so fast it's hard to get a decent pic. I'm still trying to get some pics of them.
This is my biggest Butterfly, Gomez, and he/she is one of my fav's. We have 5 Butterfly and all are my fav's. LOL

 

[CountryEscape]

Outdoorlady, Woohoo, I'm really excited for you. I hope you took a pic of your new fish when you got it, or when you get it! Nothing shows up better in a pond with black liner than a white koi. Good luck with him/her!!! I'll take all the blame in the purchase. LOL
Mrs. Clem, I totally agree with you, if others are not interested in the butterfly, it is their loss. But I know there are some that only want the original koi, but I like to have both, more variety and colors to choose from.
Cape, those are some gorgeous Gin Rins!!! I would have chosen each of them myself. I love my Sanke baby, and it sure has grown, too. All my babies I got in December have grown nicely this summer. So much fun watching them grow, and I'm so glad I copied their pics from when I purchased them, that way I can double check they are all present and accounted for, even though some have changed colors somewhat.
Ididntdoit, that white butterfly is really pretty, very long fins, will get better and better as it grows, too, I'll bet! And that white regular fin sure does sound like it is going to pass up the butterfly in size very soon.
Pondlover, are all your fish koi,and was this year your first full year with them in the pond, or did you get them last fall? Either way, if you have only koi, and have fry, that's super exciting! I got my first koi last year in July, had them with goldfish and Shubunkins, and only had goldfish/Shubie babies last summer. This spring, more of the same, but then noticed 4 that were different. Caught one of the different ones, and was happy to see whiskers, so those 4 are koi babies. It's fun to watch them grow and expand on their colors. Good luck with your fry, too!

 

[RSFish1]

I wanted to post an observation I have made on the growth of butterfly versus regular fin. I can definitely say from my observations of 3 or 4 breeding seasons and using different parents, I definitely do not see any faster growth in them. Just like the regular fins, some from the same hatching will grow faster than others. The biggest koi in my pond is a butterfly and she is probably 25" + long. I have about 25 butterflies that are about 18 months old. Some are closing in on 14" long and some are only about 10". Living in the same pond and eating the same food. It all comes down to genetics. If they got the right genes they will grow faster and bigger. Others may grow more slowly and end up bigger. Others may just never grow to be that big. I have a few koi I have kept over the years that have never got over 1 1/2"-2" long. I use them in my inside tanks instead of tropical fish.

Overall I have always seemed to noticed the darker the koi the quicker it grows. But in this years hatching, I keep noticing an all white butterfly that seems to be one of the biggest. That's the cool thing, and sometimes frustrating, you may never really know what your koi will look like or what it will turn in to.

The AKCA does have standards written up for the judging of butterfly (LF-Long fin) koi. So they are not as snubbed as they used to be.

 

[capewind]

Cape, those are some gorgeous Gin Rins!!! I would have chosen each of them myself. I love my Sanke baby, and it sure has grown, too. All my babies I got in December have grown nicely this summer. So much fun watching them grow, and I'm so glad I copied their pics from when I purchased them, that way I can double check they are all present and accounted for, even though some have changed colors somewhat.

CE, I am really happy with all three of them. Being young I was expecting some changes... They are still young, so who knows what they may do, but so far, I am very pleased. With the first pic, his (or her) orange is really starting to come in (same places, just larger), which is what I was hoping would happen, and the white is staying clean. With the second fish, the black one, I love that his (or her) black has gone to almost velvet looking, it is so deep in color, it is so pretty. The yellow outlines around the white spots are looking more orange tho. Maybe that's the direction it is going to go, or maybe the food (I was feeding Tetra Vibrance)... same for the little guy in the 3rd pic... his yellow has gone orange, but I still like him (or her). Wish it was sunny out so I could grab new pics of them.

 

[CountryEscape]

Nice to see you posting on here, RSFish! I have given your code name to others on here, one in particular in Indiana. I assume you have seen other posts I have made of the fish I purchased from you last year? They are all doing great! One has lost it's red, but the others are just as vibrant as when I purchased them. I'm well pleased! Shamu continues to be the pond favorite, probably because he is the largest of my koi. He was the one you said jumped out of the pond or somehow got hurt before I purchased him. You called him a survivor.

 

[Fishylove]

I love the Butterflies! They're so graceful when they move. Butterfly Koi is a good name for them, I like "water dragon" like the Japanese call them too