Shusui Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio

Shusui Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus CarpioShusui Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio Shusui (SHOO soo EE) koi are a grey blue koi with a very striking red pattern along the sides of the fish and in the cheeks and fins. The Shusui koi also have no scales over their body except for a row of large scales along each side of the dorsal fin. These koi are very valuable to the history of koi as they started the scaleless variety of ornamental carp and, over the years, this scale type has grown to over

Shusui Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio

Shusui (SHOO-soo-EE) koi are a grey-blue koi with a very striking red pattern along the sides of the fish and in the cheeks and fins. The Shusui koi also have no scales over their body except for a row of large scales along each side of the dorsal fin. These koi are very valuable to the history of koi as they started the scaleless variety of ornamental carp and, over the years, this scale-type has grown to over a hundred different varieties!

The Doitsu scale type originated in Germany when an Asagi koi was bred with a German Mirror Carp in the early 1900s. These Mirror Carp had a genetic mutation that resulted in certain growth genes not developing properly. This mutation was commonly seen in many types of carp including koi and zebrafish as well as thousands of other species and is visible in the form of a lack of scales or a fully scaleless fish. When the gene mutation was first spotted in Germany, the fisherman encouraged it and grew the population of fish with the mutation as it made preparing the fish for cooking and eating a lot easier and quicker. Eventually, many species developed to the point where every fish had the mutation.

After hearing about these scaleless fish in Germany, many other countries wanted them as they vastly reduced the work and time required to prepare meals and were therefore very valuable to the fish merchants and many other businessmen. One of these countries was Japan and once some of these varieties of carp, including the Mirror Carp, were imported into the country, fishermen quickly got to work introducing these new scaleless carp into their populations of carp to spread the gene mutation.

By this point, koi carp were already being bred as ornamental carp by breeders across the country and the Asagi koi was well-established. It was one such breeder, Kichigora Akiyama, who decided to breed an Asagi with one of these new Mirror Carp, which is the scaleless version of a common carp. Within only a few generations, a new variety of koi had been developed that looked like an Asagi but had the scaleless gene mutation to drastically reduce the number of scales on its body.

This new fish was originally called a Doitsu Asagi after the Japanese word for Germany, ‘Deutsche’, but the variety quickly developed and became less like the Asagi koi. As the Doitsu Asagi became more popular, it was renamed to Shusui which means ‘autumn water’ and refers to the pattern of red colour on a blue background looking like red leaves that have fallen from a tree to land in the river. The term Doitsu meaning scaleless koi stuck, however, and is still used today to refer to scaleless koi.