THE GOLDFISH 



175 



sition that this was the first "break" in form away from the common 

 stock. This is called a "tripod tail." The next higher development is 

 the "web-tail," in which both tails are fully formed but joined at the top 



Fig. 14S 

 Single Tail 



Fig. 146 Fig. 147 



Tripod Tail Web Tail 



Evolution of Double Tail or Fantail Goldfish 



Fig. 148 

 Double Tail 



edge instead of being completely divided. From these early "breaks" 

 have been developed the fully divided tails, double anal fins, et cetera. 



The origin of those weird telescopic-eyed goldfish has been the sub- 

 ject of a number of fanciful theories, but there can be little doubt that 

 the strain was produced by selective breeding from the individuals which 

 showed more or less bulging eyes. This would be the correct scientific 

 theory, and a recent discovery helps confirm it. The goldfish belongs 

 in the same family as the minnows (Cyprinidce), and a minnow has been 

 found in Nature with enormous and perfectly developed telescopic eyes, 

 proving that the break is a natural one that might be expected to occur 

 occasionally, and from which a strain of the same kind could be estab- 

 lished, especially in a subject so readily bred as the goldfish. The speci- 

 men referred to is not a case of the disease called "pop-eyes," common to 

 the sunfish and others. The eyes are purely telescopic and have been 

 so determined by Henry W. Fowler, an ichthyologist of world repute 

 who has specialized on the Cyprinidce. Fig. 167, an actual life photo- 

 graph of the fish is convincing, but the preserved specimen can be seen 

 at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In life the fish was 

 shown in a number of local aquarium society exhibitions. 



By careful selective breeding, types have become fairly well fixed, 

 but the goldfish has a strong tendency to revert far back to ancestral 

 types, in form as well as color, often to the annoyance of the breeder. 

 One of the most interesting things about a spawning of goldfish is the 

 tremendous variety in the color. In a lot of a thousand young scaleless 

 fishes there may not be two alike, and none may resemble either parent. 

 That this is not always so is a self-evident fact, else selective breeding 

 would be without results. 



The accomplishments of Oriental breeders seem only to be limited 

 by the scope of the imagination. Through the most patient efforts, not 

 only of a lifetime, but of several generations of a family, such changes 



