Life Expectancies

[MikeM]

I was asked a question at CFKS that no one was able to answer with any confidence: Do different varieties of koi have different life expectancies?

Thoughts?

[dick benbow]

prior to Toshio Sakai's re-introduction of magoi bloodline I would have said those varieties closest to the original like Asagi, yamabuki. Hanako despite the conflict over her scale's growth rings was a plain color koi as opposed to a patterned one. The longest lived one under my care was a Kigoi

[JasPR]

I think they do, mostly based on breeding. But these are variables in any genetic pool. So we talk about averages and that is a combination of genetics and environment ( environmental stresses).

So in the 1970s and 1980s most koi ony lived to 3 or 4 with most dying in their first year or two of life. Improvements in technology, pond design and diet, soon changed all that and had some living easily to 10-12.
And those stats have increased steadily up to today. Today, koi seem to die of natural causes as much as , if not more often than, disease and environmental crashes. In truth, most koi are still slowly worn down by closed systems and this is still a factor, albeit more subtle.
I would say that as a generalization, gosanke live 18- 23 years typically. And some varieties have 'been known' to live to 28- 35 years of age.
And some wild carp have been documented to be 50 years of age in captivity. Yet the studies done of prototype wild carp in the Caspian and Black sea regions find that the bulk of the population ( greatest numbers) is in the age group of 3-5 and that numbers decline from there, with 14 being an 'old fish'. This however might have to do with fishing and predation.
Against that data you can add:
Too many koi still only live to be less than two years of age.
There is no such thing as a 150 year old koi.

JR

[dick benbow]

I got my Aka mae Kigoi when she was seven and kept her till last summer when I had to put her down. That would have put her in her mid thirties.

[JasPR]

why did you have to put her down?

[Fishbreeder]

My oldest koi is a doitsu sanke female. I was told she was around 21 or 22 years old when I bought her in 1992. She came from a hotel pond in Tokyo. That would make her about 38 years old now. She still breeds every spring. I get maybe 50,000 eggs (not that many for a large koi) and maybe five or six nice doitsu sanke a year.

The oldest carp I ever heard of that was reasonably well documented is one at a fishing camp in the UK. One fish there was documented to have been caught and released for 99 years.

I've aged some really large carps caught in large reservoirs (tens of thousands of acres) to be around 15 years old. Some of these carps were over 30 pounds.

I don;t know if there is any data to suggest one variety lives longer than another.

Predisposition to disease such as cancer is common in inbred stocks of animals and so it is with koi. Exposure to a myriad of teratogenic therapuetics, environmental toxins such as dioxin, PCBs and PBBs (in our water supplies), heavy metals, and such to an already hypersuceptible animal limits lifespan.

Add to that most koi are not kept in the very best of habitats, then it is no surprise that a truly "old" koi is a rarity. Dick benbow's kigoi a distinct example of such a rarity.

Brett

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by MikeM I was asked a question at CFKS that no one was able to answer with any confidence: Do different varieties of koi have different life expectancies? Thoughts?

I think the question should be how long different varieties maintain their quality as they progress in age in the right water conditions.

For me there are very few hobbyist who keep fish in their pond for more than 5 to 7 years. To answer the question. I have 2 fish which are the oldest in my pond, one a Doitsu Platinum Ogon (10years old) and a Asagi (10 years old). The oldest GoSanke is a Kohaku from Hirasawa (8 years old). I haven't really seen a koi died because of old age, but I have seen how the quality is lose after a certain amount of years.

[dick benbow]

Jim she had an ovarian tumor that eventually affected her swim bladder so she could not rise up to feed without a struggle. I fed her sinking hikari but she was not aggressive enough to keep up with the younger koi feeding and she began to loose strength.
I didn't want to see her go this way. She had never been sick or had health issues a day in her life. I didn't have the heart to try and replace her so Richard of SJ koi found a nice
Yamabuki for me so I could have some yellow/gold in the pond yet still be different.

[kntry]

Most of my koi are 5 years old.

I started out with 3 koi, 2 longfin and 1 standard. They are all still alive and thriving although I sold the 1 standard and 1 longfin 2 years ago. They will be 17 years old this year.

The standard is all white but I'm not sure if she's a bad Kumonryu or a bad Ogon. LOL One longfin is a Sanke and the one I kept is aka Bekko.

[JanT]

is a 28" kin ki utsuri. She is certainly not the most beautiful show fish. However, she is a very friendly, very healthy koi. I can tell immediately when I walk up to the pond and look at her if all is in order with our pond. A bellweather friend and worth her pond space IMHO. She was around 8-12 years old when we acquired her with the new house (she came along with her own water garden back in 1995) She has undergone 2 pond redos and almost 13 years of putting up with us.
I don't think she minds her lot in life.