
THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOLDFISH 

to collect the animalcule which constitute the entire requirements of the 
fry; but breeders usually employ a tank in which to store and propagate 
them under careful supervision. 
When the fry have reached an age of about three weeks a few parti- 
cles of clean, crushed earthworms, finely scraped liver or powdered pre- 
pared fish food may be occasionally fed, their diet being as described until 
they have reached an age of two or three months and are able to subsist 
on the food of mature fishes. Rice flour, oatmeal broth and finely powdered 
barley malt starch have also been fed to very young fishes with success; 
but the best results and most vigorous growth are obtained by feeding 
them their natural pond food two or three times daily; when this can be 
obtained it should be fed exclusively. 
The common goldfish is easy to propagate but considerable experience, 
skill and knowledge are required to successfully rear fine specimens of the 
Japanese and Chinese breeds; of which the Comets, Fringetails, Fantails 
and Nymphs are more likely to reward the efforts of the amateur culturist 
than the very abnormally developed Telescopes and Celestials. There 
are but few breeders who have successfully done this on a commercial scale, 
though the requirements as to equipment are few and simple. A light, 
sheltered room, a greenhouse, conservatory, or in the open air during mild 
weather; a number of rearing tanks or other vessels of various sizes and 
depths of water; hatching dishes, jars or tanks; the proper aquatic plants 
and water supply; some few simple tools, patience, cleanliness, good eye- 
sight, some little experience and a careful attention to minor details are 
required. 
A prime factor in the successful propagation of the goldfish breeds is 
a judicious selection of the breeding stock, so that the desired characteris- 
tics of the parents may be transmitted to their young. The breeder should 
carefully select and mate those which most markedly exhibit the recognized 
perfections of strain, type, color and conformation, or such which are de- 
rived from known fine stock, as the constant tendency of the finely bred 
Japanese and Chinese fishes is toward reversion to the original stock or 
ancestral type; nor is this probably as much due to inbreeding as to the 
fact that the fishes, under the changed condition of existence, differences 
in treatment, climate, food etc., from generation to generation undergo a 
gradual variation from the direct parent stock, acquire a different form or 
become hybridized; and perfect specimens of the fine Oriental fishes are 
exceptionally rare. There is a general belief that all the methods em- 
ployed by the Japanese and Chinese culturists, in developing and maintain- 
ing the pure strains and in producing the wide diversity of form, color and 
appearance of the different breeds are not known or fully understood by 
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