As i said its an "aka muji" benigoi is a collective name for a group koi with red markings on its body and not a name for a sigle breed of koi, so yours is a "gin rin aka muji" aka meaning single colour red all over the body including the fins. and its a less common fish than most with a benigoi tag on it, so its none the less a nice fish, is your dealer to lazy to find out all the different names? it does amke a big difference, especialy in an arguement about the breed lmao.

I'm now wondering, if a Benigoi is not acceptable as a discription of koi type, then this would mean Soragoi and Chagoi are nouns for koi with all silvergrey and all brown colour respectively. I thought the reticulation was part of the distinction of this type of koi. It would be a part of the way I would differentiate between another all red koi without the reticulation. My dealer is far from lazy,lol, and when asked will take considerable time to discus/argue the finer points of classification, pattern, body shape....however I find I can only take in so much at a time and often come home with information spilling out of my ears. I'm interested in how you would class the Soragoi and Chagoi now though.

ok sorry to but in!!!! but? our latest fish is supposed to be soagoi but has platelet scales down its spine (mirror carp style) is that soragoi doitse? or have i done a whoopsee? i love the fish and frankly cant figure out the clasification grey areas but ? jo /

I wish I didnt take a peak in here before i went out lol, to early in the AM for big debates.

But here goes, the classifications of koi are not always easy for a layman to see or even work out, the most sort after koi is a Kohacu, but there are something like 7-8 different classes of kohacu, mainly for patten shape, but they all come under kohacu, so most jsut stick to the single kohacu.

Another simily is sanshoku, which means 3 colours, there are several that fall under this, sanke and showa being the most comon names, but they are each given the individual name to seperate the difference, the difference in sanke and showa being showa always have black at the base of the fin, sanke may have a little black in the fin but not the base, yet both fish may look identical except for that one minor point, and its that point that names the fish, other 3 colour fish have a seperate name but also fall under group tag.

chagoi, soragoi, ki goi (i have one of each) are all the basic one colour so they fall under the one class, ie benigoi if you like, but to call it a benigoi isnt exactly right, because it is a collective name, same as kohacu and sanshocu, its a bit like "hyacith Bucket" saying (boo-kay) because it sounds posher lol its not incorrect but it not exactly right either, your fish is a nice fish, very nice, and aka muji are difficult to find, I maybe wrong too, your koi might even fall under "kinginrin hi ogon" thats the difference of the class it seperates the colours, and they can confuse even the best sometimes, and one of the poitns of individual names, it makes it easier to identify the fish......mostly, you see what i mean Linda?

your not wrong calling it a benigoi, but your not right either lol its a fine point of correctness, I think a nice koi deserves its right name, you agree?

Jo, Doitsu does mean a scaless fish, but again the name doistu covers a wide area, a fish may have scales covering 10% or more of its body and still be doitsu, but it is very common for a doitsu to have that large band of sclaes down its back, some even have them along the lateral line too, but yep its a doitsu soragoi, and like all the goi breeds they are greedy and fast growers.

For all those who have recently or plan to buy a koi here's a warning I read on another board about three koi outlets; http://www.yorkshirekoi.co.uk/_forum.php?topic=9450&message=81920&neuron=6&page=0
KHV is uncurable and will kill 80%-90% of your koi, leaving the survivers as carriers! It can be dormant in the koi at lower temps only becoming active at temps of 23c and above. One of the reasons koi should be quarantined at temps up to 23c.
Chris.

One point about KHV you should be aware of, the risk is from Japanese koi not Israli koi, the Israli koi are owned or part owned by the Israli govenment in either case the gov has a big hand in it, so they undertook a programme to vaccinate thier koi from KHV, so all koi spwned from a couple of years ago will be from vaccinated parents so it it is highly unlikely that you will get one of thier fish with KHV.

However, the Japanese market for koi is mostly form localised hill farmers with a small koi business, so the cost of a vaccination programme would wipe most if not all of them out, even big long term dealers the cost would almost break them, so they dont vaccinate, you should ensure that the UK dealer you buy a koi form has a them quarenteen and heated prior to sale, buying koi from a garden centre is never a good idea, the risks are just to high and the fish are mostly of poor quality and not worth the price, as Chris says KHV can and will wipe out your entire pond if you put an infected fish in.