Koi or Marble?

Hi all,

Can someone tell me, or show me the difference between a Gold Koi and a Gold Marble?

Thanks

Hi James, Thanks for joining
Gold Marble & Koi Angelfish can look very similar with Gold/Orange/Red caps, black markings & silver to white bodys. When Koi are very young they display Blushing (red/pink) in the gill area & patches of body where the scales are more of as matt then shiny apearence, as they grow the 'shiny' scales spread to cover more of the body including the gills (resulting in the blushing not visable in the majority of Angels as they grow).
So how do we tell the difference in a larger Angelfish?
Striations are the key, Striations are horizontal markings in the finnage of a Gold Marble.







Hope this helps, Lisa

Hi James,
Whilst Lisa's reply is generally correct, occationally blushing fish do show striations, a further clue is in the skin tone, blushing fish have a matte skin tone, with patches of irridescence; this is very apparent in Lisa's third photo. The skin tone of non blushing fish doesn't have these irridescent patches.
The fish below is an example of a striated Koi, the striations are clearly visible, but the irridescent patches are too, especially in the second photograph.

If I'm right in thinking, Striations in blushing Angels only started apearing a few years ago & are not that common yet. I don't have any in my breeding stock yet & very rarely see them.
Stunning fish by the way Rob

If I'm right in thinking, Striations in blushing Angels only started apearing a few years ago & are not that common

I would go as far as to say extremely uncommon.

Stunning fish by the way Rob

Thank you. Sadly I lost this one before I was able to breed from him, but I'm hoping something similar will crop up in my koi as I have several of his relatives, indeed I think I've finally managed to persuade his brother to become a father....


I think the babies should be free swimming tomorrow (fingers crossed)

Hi Rob. Did your babies go freeswimming?

Yours is a nice fish, but I think I prefer a koi with clear fins. I think the clear fins and irridescence makes the koi a far more attractive fish than a gold marble. Just my opinion.

Hi Helen,
Nice to see you here.

What I really like about this fish is the clarity of his markings, there's no ambiguity; the white's white, the black is jet black and most significantly the orange/red is the deepest orange red I've ever seen (in the flesh) on a koi. I named him "George" because I thought he was my "Best" koi.

He's very nearly 3 years old, and I've tried him with several females with no success, I was beginning to think that he was infertile. Recently I noticed he'd paired up with a female that I consider to be possibly my best ever female parent. Not only is she fearless in the defence of her babies, she's also very cunning! So I decided to give them a breeding tank. Had this pairing proved fruitless I was going to move him to a display tank at the shop. But as he is clearly fertile, I've got a female koi I want to try him with next.
Eggs were laid on the rear of the breeding cone (aka flowerpot) I believe on 2nd Feb. On 5th feb, I dared to rotate the pot slightly and saw wrigglers or eggs that were very close to hatching, so rotated it back. Since then they've kept the wrigglers on the rear of the pot where I can't see them.
I really expected to see a swarm of babies this morning, instead they've moved them to the side of the tank. I presume they'll be free swimming tomorrow, but 8 days is far longer than I normally expect!

I took this photo of her a while ago...


she has a gold gene so half the babies will be gold marble ghosts.
His father had a smokey gene, as did his mother, I'll be interested to see how many he has!
As to clear fins, I'd prefer to see more red and less black, but he's still one of my favourite fish, I'm guessing that he's Gm/Gm, I suspect a Gm/g koi would be more to your taste!

Well Rob, you may be right about the Gm/g, but I do like the HR Koi too. We just don't see them over here.

Your female blue silver is an absolute stunner. This pairs' babies are going to be gorgeous.

I'm looking foward to your infamously good pics!

We're taking this thread off on a bit of a tangent, I have high hopes for these babies, but it's their offspring I'm particularily looking forward to!

It looks like you'll have to start a new thread then.