Koi Lóng – literally, dragon carp, in pidgin Japanese.
The Japanese get their dragon mythology in large part from the Chinese, who (I’ve heard) believe that a dragon passes through several distinct ontogenic stages in a kind of epic metamorphosis from eel-like creature to full dragonhood and a life in the Celestial Bureaucracy.
In China, there lives also the world’s largest salamander, and it was with this creature as well as dragons and koi in mind that I began my rendering. I’m happy with the creature design, but there are some funky things going on with my perspective in this sketch, and it would benefit greatly from a proper background to show environment and to make it more clear that the thing’s partially submerged and clinging to a rock shelf beneath the surface.