Medaka Popularity and Recommendations Ranking 2024! Which Modified Medaka Varieties Are Easy for Beginners?

In this article, we will introduce recommended medaka.

There are said to be over 1,000 varieties of medaka.

Among them, we will present the most popular varieties and those I recommend in a ranking format. If you want to know which modified medaka varieties are easy for beginners, please read to the end.

Latest Medaka Popularity and Recommendations Ranking

Among the more than 1,000 varieties of medaka, we will introduce the most popular and recommended varieties.

Ryusho Hoshi

 

Ryusho Hoshi is a modified medaka created in 2021 by a store called Hoshida Medaka. It is a long-finned type of the “Otohime” medaka with a black-rimmed Hikari body. The black rim appears as a net-like pattern on the orange body.

Ryusho Hoshi varies greatly among individuals, but those with a clear black rim and an orange head are extremely beautiful and are called the king of medaka.

For this reason,

Ryusho Hoshi is still traded at high prices even three years after its release. It is also a difficult medaka to purchase as its fixation rate is low and the eggs and fry are delicate, so most breeders do not cultivate it.

However, among the more than 1,000 varieties of medaka, it stands out for its beauty, making it a popular variety that medaka enthusiasts want to keep at least once.

Ryusho Hoshi can cost thousands to tens of thousands of yen for adult fish, but eggs can be purchased for 30 yen each.

【From 30 yen per egg】 Purchase Ryusho Hoshi eggs

Red Cliff Kohaku

Red Cliff Kohaku is a modified medaka created by breeder Seiji Tarumi in the fall of 2022 and released by the shop Yumechu Medaka.

It has a Kohaku body with external red and white coloration, fin light, and a Kissing Wide Fin feature, surpassing the beauty expected of medaka. In simple terms, it has a red and white body with blue fins, challenging the conventional image of medaka.

As a result, Red Cliff was initially auctioned on Yahoo Auctions for an unprecedented 1.5 million yen.

Although new medaka varieties continue to be released, none have fetched prices over 1 million yen since. It is unlikely that such high-priced medaka will appear again soon.

Currently, high-grade pairs are sold for around 10,000 to 20,000 yen, making them more accessible while maintaining their beauty, making them a popular and rewarding medaka.

Red Cliff is a very easy-to-keep modified variety among the popular varieties. It is very hardy, swims actively, and lays many eggs, making it recommended for beginners.

Red Cliff Kohaku can cost thousands to tens of thousands of yen for adult fish, but eggs can be purchased for 100 yen each.

【From 50 yen per egg】 Purchase Red Cliff Kohaku eggs

 

Emperor

Emperor is a modified medaka released by Yumechu Medaka in 2023. It is similar to Red Cliff Kohaku but has long fins instead of wide fins.

It is a beautiful medaka with a popular red and white body (with white shining on the back) and blue-white glowing fins. It is very hardy, with eggs that do not rot easily and fry that grow well, making it a recommended medaka for beginners.

Emperor is rarely available at specialty stores and is considered a phantom medaka. Especially, the individuals with a red head and white external shine all over the back are valued at tens of thousands of yen per pair.

Emperor can cost thousands to tens of thousands of yen for adult fish, but eggs can be purchased for 50 yen each.

【From 50 yen per egg】 Purchase Emperor eggs

Midnight Frill

Midnight Frill is a modified medaka created by Yumechu Medaka in 2023. It was traded for tens of thousands of yen immediately after its release. Midnight Frill is a black-bodied medaka with wide fins, created by crossing Black Diamond and Marriage.

There are three types of Midnight Frill: jet black type, external shine type, and glitter type. The jet black type has a particularly high level of perfection and is still traded for over 100,000 yen.

The image does not show a pure jet black type, but pure jet black types are even darker.

The popularity of jet black types is unlikely to decline, and black medaka like Orochi and Black Diamond have a strong following, making them long-lasting popular varieties.

As of August 2023, Midnight Frill is traded for tens of thousands of yen. Especially the jet black type is priced between 100,000 to 200,000 yen, making it very expensive for individual enthusiasts. Incidentally, jet black type eggs can sell for thousands of yen each.

Medaka no Tamagoya plans to breed parent fish of the jet black type to sell them at a more reasonable price of around a few hundred yen per egg.

 

Red Cliff Dark Type

Red Cliff Dark Type was released by Yumechu Medaka at the same time as Red Cliff Kohaku.

Unlike the Kohaku type, the body is brown. The Kohaku type does not produce the dark type, but about 10% of the dark type can produce Kohaku types.

Red Cliff Dark was sold for tens of thousands of yen immediately after its release, but now can be purchased for around 1,000 to 10,000 yen.

It is also seen in specialty stores.

Red Cliff Dark is very expensive, costing thousands of yen or more for adult fish, but eggs can be purchased for 80 yen each.

【From 50 yen per egg】 Purchase Red Cliff Dark eggs

Orochi Daruma

Among the medaka, the daruma type of the especially popular variety ”

Orochi” is highly sought after. While daruma medaka are generally popular, this one stands out even more. High-grade individuals are pitch black like tadpoles.

Orochi Daruma is very expensive, costing thousands of yen or more for adult fish, but eggs can be purchased for 80 yen each.

【From 80 yen per egg】 Purchase Orochi Daruma eggs

Reiwa Black Glitter Miky Sapphire Type

Reiwa Black Glitter Miky Sapphire Type is a modified medaka created by a medaka shop called Seirakuan. It is a further improvement of the beautiful blue glitter “Sapphire,” with the “Reiwa gene” that makes the fins red.

Reiwa Sapphire not only has red fins but also produces various body colors and glitter variations, from blue to gold. It is easy to keep, making it a popular medaka even for beginners.

Dragon’s Eye

Dragon’s Eye is a type of albino medaka created by the famous breeder Nekomeshi. Its body is pure white with bright red eyes, and it has external shine on its fins and back like Miky. Although it has been years since its release, its popularity has not waned. Albino medaka are generally considered difficult to keep, but Dragon’s Eye is very hardy and suitable for beginners. However, its growth rate is slower than regular medaka.

Yozakura Gold

Yozakura Gold is a popular medaka created by Tarumi. It is a modified medaka with beautiful gold glitter, popular among both beginners and advanced keepers. Although it has been more than five years since its release, it remains one of the most popular glitter medaka varieties.

Cheap Eggs of Popular High-Grade Medaka!

These medaka are highly popular, with adult fish costing thousands to tens of thousands of yen. The latest Midnight Frill jet black type costs over 100,000 yen. However, eggs can be purchased for as little as a few tens to hundreds of yen each. But buying medaka eggs on sites like Yahoo Auctions can be risky due to scams.

Therefore, it is very important to purchase medaka eggs from trustworthy sellers.

The website Medaka no Tamagoya is run by a friend of this blog’s administrator and is very reliable with no scams. The images are of genuine parent fish that are actually being kept.

There are also consignment sales from famous breeders. If you want to start raising these high-grade medaka from eggs, please use Medaka no Tamagoya.

Click here for the official site of Medaka no Tamagoya

5 Easy-to-Keep Medaka Recommended for Beginners

Among the medaka I am currently keeping, here are five varieties that are easy for beginners to keep.

These medaka meet these criteria, making them easy for beginners to keep.

Sapphire

Sapphire is a new variety of medaka created in 2020, characterized by its blue glitter. The fixation rate is very high, and most of the offspring inherit the Sapphire traits.

It is very popular and is handled by most medaka shops and sold extensively online, making it easy to obtain.

The price used to be tens of thousands of yen, but now it can be purchased for a few hundred yen per fish, depending on the grade.

https://www.shopping-charm.jp/product/2c2c2c2c-2c2c-2c2c-2c2c-353836383330

Mikiyuki (Platinum, Iron Mask, Full Body, Super Bright)

Mikiyuki medaka is one of the most famous modified medaka, with many people keeping them.

Platinum Mikiyuki, Iron Mask, Full Body, and Super Bright are varieties with particularly strong external shine (blue-white glow on the back).

Regular Mikiyuki medaka only have a blue-white glow on their back, but Full Body varieties glow all over, and the recently introduced Platinum Mikiyuki shines all white even from the side. These fully glowing Mikiyuki are very beautiful and recommended for beginners. They are also available at reasonable prices.

https://www.shopping-charm.jp/product/2c2c2c2c-2c2c-2c2c-2c2c-353835393834

Kotei

Kotei is a variety of medaka that has been specially bred to be redder than the Yang Guifei medaka. It is more orange than Yang Guifei and will grow to shine red when raised outdoors.

Kotei is more beautiful than regular Yang Guifei and is reasonably priced, available online anytime, making it recommended for beginners.

https://www.shopping-charm.jp/product/2c2c2c2c-2c2c-2c2c-2c2c-313333383836

Orochi

Orochi is a particularly black variety of black medaka. Medaka change color based on their background (background response), so black medaka in a white container will appear whitish, but Orochi remains black regardless of the background.

Orochi is a jet-black medaka that is very popular and has remained so for over five years since its release.

It is reasonably priced and very popular, often seen in medaka shops and tropical fish stores, making it a recommended medaka.

https://www.shopping-charm.jp/product/2c2c2c2c-2c2c-2c2c-2c2c-323634373133

Ulysses

Ulysses is a beautiful modified medaka with blue glitter and orange speckles. It is a newly introduced variety with limited availability. When well-raised, it becomes a very beautiful and striking medaka.

The price has stabilized compared to earlier, and it is often available for under 1,000 yen per fish. However, the fixation rate is slightly low, so a variety of patterns may appear in the offspring.

Standard Popular Medaka and Their Varieties

Next, we will introduce recommended varieties of standard popular medaka for beginners.

Yang Guifei

Yang Guifei is the most famous modified medaka. It has a stronger orange color than regular medaka and grows to a particularly beautiful vermilion color when raised outdoors. Yang Guifei medaka are common and often seen in home centers, but there are also varieties like Kotei medaka, which are further improved to be redder, and these are also recommended. Regular Yang Guifei medaka are sold for 100 to 300 yen per fish, making them very affordable.

Totenko

Totenko is a Hikari-type (with matching pectoral and dorsal fins) Yang Guifei medaka. It can be kept similarly to Yang Guifei. Among the offspring, there are sometimes regular Yang Guifei or daruma medaka. It is available for a few hundred yen per fish and is recommended for those who want to try keeping a slightly different medaka.

Mikiyuki

Mikiyuki is a modified medaka with a blue-glowing back called external shine. Along with Yang Guifei, it is one of the most famous medaka and is sold everywhere. It is available for about 200 yen per fish, making it easy for beginners to purchase and recommended. There are also various derived varieties, including the aforementioned Platinum Mikiyuki and Full Body.

Incidentally, most of the modified medaka in circulation, such as Sapphire, are derived from Mikiyuki.

Black Mikiyuki

Black Mikiyuki is a beautiful variety with a black body and external shine. It has more presence than Mikiyuki but is not often seen. Being an old variety, it is very affordable and recommended.

Platinum Seiga

Platinum Seiga is a version of Platinum Mikiyuki with glitter on the back. However, the glitter is only visible from the side, so it is recommended to keep them in a tank. It is a very popular variety with a high fixation rate and is often sold at reasonable prices, making it recommended for beginners.

Green Light

Green Light is a medaka with a rare feature of a green-glowing back. It was believed to be impossible to create green medaka as they lack green pigments. Strictly speaking, it is yellow and blue, but high-grade ones shine green. They are easy to keep and have become more affordable recently, making them recommended.

Black Diamond

Black Diamond is a medaka with glitter patterns on a black body, similar to Orochi medaka. As the name suggests, it is a beautiful medaka with diamond-like glitter within the black color and is very popular.

A large number of them are available, often sold for around 1,000 yen per fish, making them recommended for beginners. However, the fixation rate is not very high, and gray medaka will always appear among the offspring.

Tricolor

Tricolor medaka are medaka with white, black, and red colors. Even with careful selection, it is said that only about 20% of them will have clear tricolor patterns, with perfect individuals appearing once in several hundred to several thousand.

Of course, you can still enjoy them as a beginner without pursuing perfection, and they are often sold at reasonable prices based on their grade, making them easy to obtain. Many enthusiasts fall deeply into breeding tricolor medaka, so if you have a large yard or plenty of time, they are recommended.

Kohaku

Kohaku is a medaka with beautiful white and red contrast. High-grade individuals are as vivid as koi or goldfish, making them very popular and recommended for those who want to purchase medaka with high aesthetic value.

However, like tricolor medaka, Kohaku medaka have a wide variation among individuals, so you need to breed many offspring. It is a deep breed requiring ample breeding space.

Goshiki

Goshiki is a modified medaka with a black body with a touch of red and yellow fins. It is particularly popular among modified medaka for its subdued color and is recommended for beginners. There are various versions, including those with a stronger white color and Type Red with a stronger red color. While not often seen outside of specialty stores, they are also available online.

 

Recommended Glitter Medaka Varieties

Varieties with glitter on their backs are very popular among modified medaka. Starting with Sapphire, introduced at the beginning, brilliantly colored medaka comparable to guppies and neon tetras are being created one after another.

Among them, we will introduce recommended modified medaka for beginners.

Amber Glitter

Amber Glitter is a modified medaka with a golden body and shining glitter. They are often sold at affordable prices and have become more common. Recently, there are also derived varieties like Amber Glitter Rainbow, with various colored glitters, making them recommended medaka.

Yozakura

Yozakura is a modified medaka with black rim patterns (net-like black patterns on scales) and glitter. They come in various versions, including blue and gold, with different patterns for each individual, so you won’t get bored.

They are very popular among modified medaka and are sold in most medaka specialty stores, making them recommended for beginners. The price can vary from a few hundred to several thousand yen depending on the grade.

Tricolor Glitter

Tricolor Glitter is a very beautiful modified medaka with glitter on a tricolor body. It is considered a representative variety of glitter medaka, with high-grade individuals having high aesthetic value and being traded at high prices.

Adding glitter to the already low-fixation tricolor pattern makes selection very difficult, and mastering tricolor glitter medaka definitely requires a lot of space.

Nevertheless, lower-grade ones are sold at affordable prices, making them recommended for beginners.

Recommended Long-Fin Medaka Ranking

Next, we will introduce the recommended ranking of long-fin medaka. Long-fin medaka are often referred to by names such as “Matsui Long-Fin” combined with the variety name, like Long-Fin Yang Guifei or Long-Fin Goshiki.

Satan

Satan is the long-fin type of Orochi. In other words, it is a completely black long-fin medaka and a very attractive and popular variety among long-fin medaka.

Wings of Oblivion

 

Wings of Oblivion is a long-fin medaka with beautiful gold glitter. It is a new variety created around 2021, which was traded at high prices. Although the price has stabilized, it is not sold very cheaply due to the low fixation rate typical of long-fin medaka. It is often sold for around 1,000 yen per fish, making it recommended for those who want to purchase beautiful medaka.

Ryusho Hoshi

 

Ryusho Hoshi is a popular medaka with beautiful black rim patterns (black net-like patterns on a red body). The long fins are elegant and highly valued, traded at high prices. However, the fixation rate is low, making it not suitable for beginners. Despite its fame, it is not often seen in circulation.

Recris

Recris is a variety of medaka with shining gold glitter all over its body. It is also a long-fin type, becoming very beautiful as it grows. It was rarely seen before, but recently it has started appearing in pet shops. It is recommended for those who want to keep beautiful modified medaka.

 

Recommended Standard Medaka Varieties

Next, we will introduce standard medaka varieties that have been kept for a long time.

Himedaka

Himedaka is the first modified medaka created in the Edo period. It is so familiar that it is kept in schools and sold as feed for carnivorous fish for tens of yen each. It is very hardy and much more prolific than regular modified medaka, making it recommended as an entry-level medaka.

White Medaka

White medaka were also created in the Edo period. White medaka look very unusual to those not familiar with medaka, making them very popular among beginners. They are usually sold at tropical fish stores and home centers for a few hundred yen, similar to Yang Guifei. They are easy to keep like Himedaka, making them recommended for beginners.

Black Medaka

Black medaka are modified medaka that closely resemble wild medaka. Strictly speaking, they are not wild medaka but fixed from atavistic Himedaka. They are the most hardy among medaka and are sold everywhere for less than 100 yen per fish. They have high reproductive and survival rates, often kept in outdoor biotopes. They are recommended as tank mates for native freshwater fish tanks.

Black Medaka

Black medaka have a distinctive black body color. They are blacker than black medaka but not completely jet black. When black medaka first appeared, they were sold for thousands of yen each, but with the appearance of completely black modified medaka like Orochi, their price has dropped, and they are now sold for less than a few hundred yen.

Blue Medaka

Blue medaka have a beautiful blue body color. They can be thought of as the non-glowing version of Mikiyuki. The history of blue medaka is long, dating back to the Edo period. They are often priced higher than white medaka. They are hardy and easy to keep, making them recommended for beginners.

Raise Popular Medaka

There are many other beautiful medaka. There is no end to the list of recommended medaka, so the best choice is to select a medaka variety that you personally like. The difficulty of keeping medaka does not vary significantly by type. While daruma medaka are more delicate than regular medaka, differences in color or fin length do not make them harder to keep, so choose the medaka you like and give it a try!
“`