baby fish question?

Question

I am trying to figure out if my pond has baby koi or baby goldfish. The koi in my pond are about 3-4 years old but i have been unable to sex them. I only have 2 koi in my pond so the chances that one is male and the other female is somewhat slim. The goldfish in my pond are only a few months old. I bought them in the late spring and I don't know if they are even capable of breeding at the moment.
Any ideas???

The baby fish come in a veriety of colors. Some are solid silver, others have orange, some have spots, etc.

Answer 1

If the total age of the goldfish is only a few months old, I'd bet on the koi - goldfish aren't generally mature until they're a year old.

One way you can tell them apart easily is that koi will have barbels (little whiskers) at the sides of the mouth. Goldfish also have them, but they're much less obvious. On a koi that's showing some color already, you might be able to notice these. Here's a photo on an older koi - the barbel seen looks like a white string hanging from the mouth: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50297612@N00/440973412/

Answer 2

Coloring has no bearing on the species. Both goldfish and koi come in every color you can imagine a fish might come in. Red, orange, yellow, white, black, blue, gold, copper, platinum, silver, etc. You are going to have to wait until they get older and start developing their barbs, if any. If they appear to be fairly well-grown and still do not have barbs, you have goldfish. Other ways to tell are the size of the scales. Koi have larger scales than goldfish. Also, the shape of the head is slightly different. Goldfish are more smooth and bullet-like, whereas koi have a squarish type shape to them. But, all of these things will have to wait until the fish grow up to a more adult size.

Answer 3

If you added any new plants this Spring the eggs could have come in on the plants,and are probably Goldfish,but could be any thing.
And the chances of your having a pair of Koi are 50/50.

Answer 4

Wew considering goldfish are all one colour its not likely to be goldfish babys if they are all diffrent colour? And the goldfish were proibly young when you bought them?. And the chances of the kois been male and female is really 50/50 so my money is on that they are koi.