Siamese Superkoi on it’s way?

A couple of years ago several Koibreeders mixed Magoi-blood into the Koibloodlines to create more elongated fishes. In my head a scenario loomed, that this development can have large effects on our hobby. For now I (Jeroen van Gaalen) will present you the Siamese Carp, also called ‘Giant Carp’.

I was relaxing and watching a documentary of National Geographic Wild. Even on my holidays I end up with…of course…fish. When Bram asked me, a while ago, to write a article about the Grand Champion B of the Rinyukai Indonesia Super Koi Show, I was truly amazed by how impressive such Koi is. Surely, you can imagine: a Koi with an amazing body structure and a perfect skin quality and a length of 115 cm. The Siamese Carp however, changed this imagination into a trifle….

The Siamese Carp is a cyprinus which is closely related to the Grasscarp and the Silvercarp and further related to the Common carp. It is one of the larges cyprinus and can reach a length of 2 meters with a weight of around 100kg. The distribution area of this carp is mainly in large rivers in South-East Asia, for example Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

‘What kind of filtersystem should you build?’

When watching a documentary about this mighty cyprinus, I had to think about my own little pond and fishes. If a breeder would include genes of this cyprinus in a Koi bloodline…is it possible and what will be the consequences of this experiment? And further thinking: what kind of pond, filter- and feeding system etc. is needed for a giant as the Siamese Carp? The common hobbyist should better not think about it, however I will not be surprised when this expriment in one way or another will take place in the future. There are different standards for the rich Koi owners in Asia of course, so maybe someone tried already to breed such hybride Koi or is this way of crossbreeding just impossible? A very interesting issue…what do you think?