
THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOLDFISH 




RACES 
Length of head. 
of intestine. 
fin. 


Length of body. 

Length of intestine. 
Width of the trunk behind 
the body cavity, between it and 
Length of caudal fin. 
Ratio of head to length of 
intestine 
the base of the caudal fin. 
Ratio of total length to length 
Ratio of total length of head and 
body to the length of the caudal 

Total length of head and body. 
Distance from vent to caudal fin. 



Common Goldfish. 
Sa) 
Wo 
Two long bodied Japanese long- 
tailed Goldfishes. 
10 1:93:25) (22:65 
28|19| 226} 7 TOTs1:73 
Healso pointed out that “the large number of capillaries in the huge 
tail of fine specimens of the ‘ Kinyiki’ and KIN-YU races indicate that the 
caudal fin may possibly serve in a very important way as an adjunct to 
branchial respiration”, and that “the immense fins of the Japanese double- 
tailed goldfishes have been developed partially in physiological response 
to artificial conditions of respiration, that were not as favorable as those 
enjoyed by their wild congenetors’’, and, “ that the dorsal, anal and caudal 
fins may be so modified as to minister in an important way to the needs 
of respiration.” 

Three short-bodied Japanese 
double-tailed Goldfishes. 47 
Also, “the fact that the very long fins are only fully devel- 
oped at a very late period of the growth of the animal, is in harmony with 
the view that the hypertrophy of these organs is associated with a correla- 
tive degeneration of the muscles of the trunk, and possible use of these 
structures with their great amount of surface as respiratory organs, in the 
restricted and badly aerated tanks and aquaria in which they have been 
bred for centuries.” 
The very red color of the blood in the arteries and capillaries of the 
fins would indicate the correctness of this hypothesis. 
The comparisons of the telescopic-eyed goldfishes are equally interest- 
ing. Professor Ryder states that “ the eye-ball becomes greatly elongated 
in the direction of its optic axis. Sometimes the difference between the 
axial and equatorial diameter is as much as three millimetres, constituting 
an extremely myopic form of eye-ball. The form of the eye-ball in the 
common races is flat or hypermetropic in character. A gradual passage 
from the hypermetropic to the myopic form is shown in the following 
table, as based upon actual approximate measurements of the eye-balls of 
individuals of the three races. The size and shape of the globular lens 
is not appreciably different from that of the other races with smaller eye- 
balls. It would therefore, seem impossible for the image formed by the lens 
96 
