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RYUKIN
The ryukin in some respects is intermediate between the fantail and the veiltail:
it has a deep body and usually a medium to fairly long tail, but the tail is held high and its lobes
are narrow; the other fins are similar to the fantail's. In two respects it
is different from either: the head is pointed and there is an indentation in
the anterior dorsal contour where the head joins the rest of the body, giving
a dorsal hump. The ryukin was developed in China and imported and further developed
in Japan.
There is a long-tailed version of this fish known as fringetail/ribbontail
ryukin.
There is as yet no British standard for the ryukin; any viewer knowing of a
standard with line drawings is invited to contact the Website Author.
Mature adults
Photographed in Hong Kong, December 2003

Tricolour (red-white-black) ryukin with medium length tail.

Red and red-and-white fish with short tails. In the centre is a black demekin (see below).

Two red-white fish with short tails, amongst various other types.
Mature adults
Photographed in Hong Kong in December 2000 (top) and at BAS 1999 (bottom);
the red-white variegated fish have long tails.
Young adult, top view
This red-and-white variegated fish was shown at BAS 2002. Note the long, deeply forked tail, compared with the broader tail of the veiltail in which the fork has largely been bred out.
Demekin
This is the globe eye version of the ryukin, called the demekin, which has
all the characters of the ryukin with the addition of the globe eye feature;
it is quite distinct from the standard globe
eye. Photographed in Hong Kong in December 2000.
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