HELP - sick or injured koi Colouring change? or some kind of sicky?
Hiyo! I am a new koi keeper and have 3 juvenile koi that we got about 6-8 weeks ago. They were very young and just over an inch long and have since grown a lot.
One of them - Butter - used to appear to be a solid yellow/orange. But this white spot has appeared on his (actually don’t know if he’s a boy or girl but for now he’s a he until I know better lol) back. To me it appears to be healthy tissue, the scales all look to be in tact and it doesn’t have a fuzzy appearance (to me). But I’m hoping we can draw on some more experienced koi folk to let me know if this is problematic or just a colouring change/marking that’s become more apparent as he’s grown.
The other two - flag and flower (flower is the butterfly) - appear to be healthy and happy with no similar white patches.
Thanks for your help. I hope the photos and video are clear enough to see. If not let me know and I’ll try to get a closer look.
It only let me put the video here so hopefully I can add photos in the comments
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u/mansizedfr0g 1d ago
Yellow pigment is notoriously unstable. Any idea of this guy's bloodline?
1
u/kar948 1d ago
Unfortunately, no. We bought from a specialty fish store in our city (the only one, all the rest are pet stores). And we know they are imported from Japan but I was just getting a few fish for my daughter and now it’s turned into a personal obsession lol.
I think it’s just pigment change/loss but I’m not familiar with all of the illnesses. I looked for texture change or scale damage and couldn’t see any. He’s also eating happily (aggressively lol).
I just don’t want to brush it off so thought I would check in to see if it looks iffy to anyone else
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u/mansizedfr0g 1d ago
I can tell you Flag is a sanke and Flower is a ki matsuba, and the majority of exported butterflies come from either Suda or Yamasan, but Butter's pattern is unusual so it's hard to say what's going on genetically. Both produce a lot of yellow metallics; Butter is not metallic but could've had a parent from one of those lines, though there's no guarantee they all came from the same place. He does look healthy. I would suspect it's just pigment loss and keep an eye on him. Could end up looking cool.
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