Hikari
"Making Species Specific Diets for Decades!"


For the discriminating hobbyist, the world’s most recognized premium aquatic diets!

Our Mission

Hikari®, the "originator" of Species Specific and premium aquatics diets has been copied by many, but our loyal customers know they can always depend on our products to offer their aquatic pets the finest in scientifically balanced nutrition we can muster. For almost 140 years we've spent considerable time exploring natural habitats of fish, breeding fish in our own facilities, producing diets in our own factories, processing every shipment through our own facilities and researching the impact our diets have over time. These unique insights into the nutritional needs of fish give a competitive advantage no other fish food maker can duplicate and allow us to produce diets that will not only maintain your aquatic pets' health, but assist you in keeping your aquarium or pond in top form. Additionally, the complete control of the production process for each of our diets and the complete traceability of each production lot allows us to provide you with the quality you have come to expect from the worldwide leader in premium aquatic nutrition. Consider using Hikari®, because you love your aquatic pets as much as they love you!

Hikari®—Japan’s most popular brand offers you quality you can depend on! Kyorin Co., Ltd., maker of Hikari® aquatic diets, calls upon over thirteen decades of ornamental fish-breeding experience to bring you the finest premium aquatic diets available today. Our reputation in Japan, a nation known for its advanced ornamental fish hobby and keen focus on fish health, has helped us maintain dominant market share for many decades. Today, throughout the world, discriminating hobbyists, with the health of their aquatic pet as their priority, look to Hikari®!

The quality of Hikari® diets is a direct result of the many activities undertaken to understand fish, their eating habits and their dietary requirements. It all starts with exploration to study the actual habitats of tropical fish. This invaluable experience compliments intensive research by our Hikari Aquatic Laboratory staff. Additionally, our world renowned Yamasaki Koi Farm, tropical fish breeding facility, marine fish breeding facility and crustacean breeding facility allows allows us to use our diets first hand, ever noting the growth and coloration characteristics each one offers. We are also the largest shipper of live tropical and marine fish in all of Japan. So, as you can see, we are not producing diets for the sake of selling merchandise, but rather make the health and longevity of the fish and the health of the aquatic environment they live in our first priority. Focusing on bringing about success to the hobbyist through exacting nutrition has allowed us to develop a brand name synonymous with superior quality!

Technology

Utilizing our state-of-the-art facilities, some of which are shown here, Hikari® utilizes modern technology to provide you products many have come to depend on. Our exclusive, highly automated factories allow us to control 100% of the manufacturing process. Our experienced staff knows what it takes to maintain strict quality standards to bring you our world-class diets. Our first hand experience breeding and raising fish, and the scientific data we can collect during this process, give us a clear roadmap for future product improvements and enhancements. Actual experience and physical practice instead of marketing schemes or unproven theory, it's why Hikari® is the market leader in premium aquatic diets!

  • Nishikigoi koi farm

    Our Nishikigoi farm covering an area of more than 33,00m2. The breeding and rearing of high quality koi based on the newest technology and time honored tradition is conducted here.

  • Hikari Aquatic Laboratory

    The state-of-the-art Hikari Aquatic Laboratory.

  • Fukusaki Factory

    Our latest Fukusaki Factory was established in November 2007.

  • hikari shipping

    One of Hikari's shipping facilities. Hikari products are stored on a 50 meter long, hi-tech moving pallet rack system.

  • hikari Storage

    Computerized Raw Ingredient Storage & Mixing System

  • hikari first hand experience

    Using our first-hand experience as the basis for success!

Investigations

How can you produce a "premium" aquatic diet without knowing what the fish need to live a long and health-filled life? There are countless answers required before the first sample diets can even be tested at the Hikari Aquatic Laboratory. We feel it's our duty to constantly investigate the natural ecology of fish to make the best food for them. Our exploration to Irian Jaya, Lake Malawi in Africa, Guiana highland, the Indian Ocean, the jungle of Southeast Asia and the Holy River Ayeyawadyand others, offer us many secrets to fish health, coloration, breeding requirements, water conditions and quality and ultimately a life span which exceeds that they would expect in their natural habitat.

  • Irian Jaya

    Color differences of each lake suggest different water quality, different fishes might live there. June 1993, Irian Jaya.

  • angelfish Colombia

    A wild altum angelfish appeared from the bottom of brown colored water. November 1996, Colombia

  • Copadichromis cyaneus lake Malawi

    Copadichromis cyaneus we caught. April 1994, Malawi

  • Turkana kenya

    Dancing with Turkana village women. February 1997, Kenya

  • pleco Venezuela

    Catching beautiful royal pleco by hand. February 1996, Venezuela

Space Shuttle Challenger

Our reputation is so strong and creative ability so diverse that Hikari® was called upon by NASA to produce a special diet for "Space Shuttle" fish keeping experiments. We use this same creativity for the Hikari® diets we've brought to market; our disc type food for plecostomus, Algae Wafers™; our ultra-fine, nutrition packed food for tropical fish, Micro Pellets®; our revolutionary probiotics diet Saki-Hikari® for koi, goldfish, marine fish and cichlids; our rapidly softening diets like Sinking Carnivore Pellets, Massivore Delite® and Pac Attack or our revolutionary dual phase coral food Coralific Delite. We readily accept the challenges required to maintain our market leading position for technology, quality, efficacy, product innovation and package design.

  • challenger space shuttle

    The Challenger Space Shuttle taking off from Florida.

  • challenger killifish

    Japanese killifish was used in the Space Shuttle experiments.

  • challenger killifish food

    The special diet developed and produced by Hikari for the Space Shuttle experiments.

  • challenger shuttle experiment

    Hikari's special diet-An experiment underway aboard the space shuttle.


History

Nishikigoi—an export that has defined Japan’s focus on beauty, elegance and quality.

Breeding and keeping Nishikigoi is one of Japan’s most revered and time honored traditions dating back more than two hundred years. Today more than eighty varieties of Nishikigoi are bred and loved by people throughout the world because of their ever changing beauty, high adaptability to different environments, easy interaction with their owners and potential to live a long life.

In 1961, Kamihata Fish Industries Ltd. began its career as a Nishikigoi breeder in southern Japan. In 1964, a “Kamihata Sanke” (a variety of Nishikigoi) bred and raised at the Yamasaki Koi Farm was awarded the championship prize at the All Japan Nishikigoi Contest. Having a long history of making their own diets, Kamihata Fish Industries utilized this knowledge and experience and began exporting their koi foods throughout the world as Hikari® brand diets.

Quickly becoming a market leader it was decided ongoing study of fish health and nutrition would be mandatory and the Hikari Aquatic Laboratory was established. The major focus of this lab is to accumulate breeding and rearing statistics, study ingredient selection and it's impact on health and coloration and the research of new technologies. Kamihata Fish Industries Ltd. is the only company in the world that fuses a history of tradition with modern technology to bring you and the pets you love their best.

As the most popular and trusted brand throughout Japan, Hikari® is also known as the aquatic first choice among Japanese koi professionals and hobbyists. With a quintessential blend of scientific research, modern technology and almost 140 years of experience, the specialized diets Hikari® offers have been the winning diets used by expert koi breeders to sweep almost every All Japan Grand Championship award since 2003. If you want a diet as rich in time honored tradition as koi themselves, try Hikari®!

hikari timeline