When photography is mentioned, and the topic is: Animals and water, the first thing that comes to mind is the front page of a magazine, "National Geography" or "Hunting and Fishing".
I've never dived on coral reefs, so I don't have photos of tropical marine species of fish.
I've never been to Alaska or North America to photograph polar bears or grizzlies fishing in streams. I have never been to Africa on a safari, so to see elephants or hippos swimming in rivers and lakes and I have not seen crocodiles in their natural habitat.
But I saw a large number of KOI carp (Nishkigoi) during my vacation in Protaras, Cyprus, in the garden of a restaurant, in an artificial lake surrounded by stones.
An ornamental species of carp, originally from Japan, bred since the beginning of the 18th century, is considered a symbol of friendship and love.
It represents the most expensive farmed fish and in various competitions the price of one specimen can be in the millions.
As you can see in these photos, they come in different colors and it is precisely the intensity of the color and the shape of the scales that gives them value.
But now I wouldn't recount here the history of cultivation, varieties, reproduction...
I will share photos of these beautiful specimens, which I took with my cell phone.
I hope that KOI carp, which are not real animals, because they are raised in artificial conditions, fit the theme given by @friendlymoose in the #POBPhotocontest
and that you will like the photos.
