
GOLDFISH BREEDS 

To find beauty in this wild fantasm is surely “an acquired taste’’ but 
their rarity and singular appearance, their extreme contrast with every 
other kind of goldfish, led to the Chinese varieties being the highest prized 
of any of the aquarium fishes. 
In the following descriptions and illustrations the Japanese and 
Chinese goldfishes will be treated of in the order in which they differ from 
the ordinary goldfishes and from each other. It may be here stated that 
the racial characteristics of the Japanese and Chinese are clearly reflected 
in their goldfish breeding; the innate, though often oddly expressed, ap- 
preciation of the beautiful of the Japanese race, and the search for the 
bizarre, the grotesque, and often to the Occidental mind the horrid, on 
the part of the Chinese. 
It should also be premised that the illustrations are accurate, unflattered 
drawings from life of the most perfect fishes of their respective kinds, 
seen or owned by the author, except in a very few instances of those 
varieties which are now extinct in the Eastern States and for which descrip- 
tions and sketches were obtained from their one-time owners, to whom 
credit is given. Nearly all of these different breeds have been fully accli- 
mated and most of them are American bred. 
Early naturalists distinguished between the few then known toy 
varieties of the goldfishes, of Chinese and Japanese origin, by more or 
less appropriate Latin and Greek descriptive designations, which Dr. E. 
Zernecke applied to the now generally known varieties and added others. 
For instance, the Japanese double-tailed fishes were known as Carassius 
auratus, variitas japonicus, (Japanese variety of the goldfish); but which 
did not designate the Fringetail or Fantail and applied as well as to the 
Comet, Nymph or others of Japanese origin and derivation. Dr. Zernecke 
proposed Carassius auratus, var. japonicus, bicaudalis, (double-tailed Japa- 
nese variety of the goldfish); which would not include the single-tailed 
varieties, but could be applied to both the Fringetail and the Fantail. The 
following nomenclature for the toy varieties now known and bred in the 
United States is proposed and here adopted with the hope that it will meet 
with general acceptance:— 
The Common American Goldfish— Carassius auratus, var. americanus. 
The Common European Goldfish— Carassius auratus, var. europensis. 
The Japanese Comet Goldfish— Carassius auratus, var. japonicus simplex. 
The Japanese Fringetail Goldfish— Carassius auratus, var. japonicus pendulibicaudalis. 
The Japanese Fantail Goldfish— Carassius auratus, var. japonicus erectibicaudalis. 
The Japanese Nymph Goldfish— Carassius auratus var. japonicus, nympha. 
The Japanese Barnacled Goldfish— Carassius auratus, var. japonicus verrucosus. 
The Japanese Hooded or Lion-headed Goldfish— Carassius auratus, var. japonicus veocephalus. 
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