About koi.wiki and its editorial rules
What koi.wiki is
koi.wiki collects what published sources say about koi in one place: how the varieties are named and classified, how they are judged at shows, how koi are kept in ponds, what water quality and health problems keepers face, and how the hobby grew from the rice-growing villages of Niigata into an international one with shows on several continents. The site is organized in sections, listed in the sidebar: varieties, keeping koi (ponds, water quality, equipment, feeding, health and seasonal care), shows and clubs, and reference entries such as the history of koi, the glossary and the common questions page.
The site is a reference, not a shop, a club or a veterinary service. It does not sell koi, food, equipment or medication, and it does not recommend brands, dealers or breeders. Entries about health describe what extension services, veterinary bodies and government agencies publish; they are not a diagnosis, and a keeper with a sick fish should consult a veterinarian with aquatic experience.
Editorial rules
Every entry follows the same rules.
- Every fact has a source. Each paragraph carries numbered footnotes that lead to the References section at the foot of the entry, with the title, publisher and address of the source. Statements that could not be tied to a source were removed before publication, including numbers that did not appear in the cited source.
- Nothing is invented. No figures, dates, show results, prices or quotations are estimated or filled in. Where the sources are silent, the entry says less rather than guessing.
- Conflicts are shown, not settled. When two sources disagree, for example about a founding date or the dates of a show, both versions are given side by side with their sources, and the entry does not choose between them.
- Sources are ranked. Preference goes to koi associations and judging bodies, government agencies, standards bodies, university extension services, peer-reviewed literature and encyclopedias. Pages from koi farms and dealers are used only where they are the best available description, and statements from them are attributed by name and labeled as coming from a dealer.
- No promotion. Entries do not recommend products, brands, farms or shops, and the site carries no affiliate links. Equipment entries describe how types of equipment work; where a manufacturer's technical document is cited, it is cited only for specifications.
- Language. The site uses US spelling. Japanese terms are written in romaji, with kanji or kana where a cited source gives them. Translations and etymologies of Japanese names are given only when a source states them.
- Images are honest. Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licenses that allow reuse with credit, and each was checked for the variety it shows. Where free photographs are lacking, the site uses illustrations made with an AI image tool. Each such image is labeled "Illustration (AI-generated), not a photograph" in its caption, its alternative text and its structured data, and none is presented as a real fish. Color diagrams are schematic and are not pattern standards. All credits are listed on the image credits page.
- Show listings are checked. Show dates and venues are taken from the organizers or the federations that publish show calendars. A show that could not be confirmed from an organizer or a federation is marked as unverified.
How entries are made
For each entry the editorial team gathers the relevant published sources, which are listed on the sources page. The entry is drafted from those sources, then checked: every paragraph must carry at least one citation, every number must match the cited source, and links must point to existing entries. Entries are reviewed again when a source changes, for example when a standard is revised or a show calendar is updated.
Corrections
Errors are corrected as soon as they are found, and corrections are recorded in the change log below. A correction is made only when a published source supports it.
Licensing
The text of koi.wiki is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Photographs keep the licenses chosen by their authors, shown in each caption. Diagrams and illustrations made for the site are available under the same license as the text.
Change log
- : first publication: 190 entries across varieties, biology, breeding, buying, ponds, equipment, water quality, feeding, health, seasonal care, predators, shows, organizations, laws, culture and history, with a glossary, a common-questions page, a source list and image credits.