Medaka naming game

[OceanTruth]

I’m planning to buy a couple more different strains of Medaka ricefish. While looking through various sites I’m wondering if “Blue Sparkle” and “Platinum” Medaka are actually the same strain? From the descriptions and photos provided I cannot tell if there is a difference. A top view photo would help, but I can’t seem to find any. Google was not my friend on answering this question.

Anyone here happen to know or have kept both lines?

[modified lung]

Blue sparkle should be white with a slightly blueish tint and have reflective scales that look like glitter (often called "lame") along their back and sides.

Platinum should be pure white with a very bright reflective stripe across their back.

I've noticed blue sparkles also usually have translucent scales while platinums have solid scales.

But there doesn't seem to be clear rules for translating that Japanese names for different characteristic into English names. So a lot of US sellers don't seem to know the difference yet and pictures on their websites are very inconsistent at times. So really you could be getting any variation of white or blue. I once ordered pearl galaxy which is basically the white version of blue sparkle but they sent me platinums instead (which was actually what I wanted lucky for me).

Edited October 27, 2022 by modified lung

[OceanTruth]

On 10/27/2022 at 2:43 PM, modified lung said:

Blue sparkle should be white with a slightly blueish tint and have reflective scales that look like glitter (often called "lame") along their back and sides.

Platinum should be pure white with a very bright reflective stripe across their back.

I've noticed blue sparkles also usually have translucent scales while platinums have solid scales.

But there doesn't seem to be clear rules for translating that Japanese names for different characteristic into English names. So a lot of US sellers don't seem to know the difference yet and pictures on their websites are very inconsistent at times. So really you could be getting any variation of white or blue. I once ordered pearl galaxy which is basically the white version of blue sparkle but they sent me platinums instead (which was actually what I wanted lucky for me).

Thank you for the info! Seems like a muddled mess. I guess the Platinums I have are really Blue Sparkle since they do have a bluish tint to them. I read somewhere that Platinums do have that tint, so I didn’t think much of it. So much misinfo in this hobby… I bought them from what I thought was a reputable seller too.

I guess I’ll just try some random lines and ignore all the silly names for them.

[modified lung]

On 10/27/2022 at 12:10 PM, OceanTruth said:

Thank you for the info! Seems like a muddled mess. I guess the Platinums I have are really Blue Sparkle since they do have a bluish tint to them. I read somewhere that Platinums do have that tint, so I didn’t think much of it. So much misinfo in this hobby… I bought them from what I thought was a reputable seller too.

I guess I’ll just try some random lines and ignore all the silly names for them.

To be fair, it sounds like a long time ago the blues and whites were called the same thing in Japan. There's a whole medaka naming association now but they don't translate anything into English. 

On 10/27/2022 at 12:10 PM, OceanTruth said:

I guess the Platinums I have are really Blue Sparkle since they do have a bluish tint to them.

Most of them have very straight forward names according to their traits so you could call them blue or white platinum sparkle/galaxy/lame if they have both the reflective back and the glitter scales. 

 

[Tedrock]

On 10/27/2022 at 6:10 PM, modified lung said:

To be fair, it sounds like a long time ago the blues and whites were called the same thing in Japan. There's a whole medaka naming association now but they don't translate anything into English. 

Most of them have very straight forward names according to their traits so you could call them blue or white platinum sparkle/galaxy/lame if they have both the reflective back and the glitter scales. 

 

Do you know of the association that names the rice fish?  

[modified lung]

On 10/31/2022 at 5:07 PM, Tedrock said:

Do you know of the association that names the rice fish?  

Japan Medaka Association

http://jma-medaka.jp

I'm very slowly trying to translate their classification manual atm.