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The Aquarium 



^ 



Volume II 



V; 



MAY, 1913 



Number 2 



J 



The Celestial Telescope Goldfish. 



WM. T. INNES, Jr.. Philadelphia. 



T^HE celestial telescope goldfish has 

 -■- been very conspicious by its 

 absence from the United States for the 

 past ten years. For several years the 

 writer has wanted to see one. When 

 hearing some of the old fanciers speak 



of having had _____„___„ 



specimens, it 

 always seemed 

 as though they 

 spoke of some 

 golden age, gone 

 never to return. 

 Too, the diffi- 

 culty of keeping 

 them alive and 

 the suppo sed 

 impossibility of 

 breeding them, 

 added more 

 charm and mys- 

 tery to the celest- 

 ial. But it seems 

 that what hap- 

 pens once can 

 happen again, 

 and that sometimes we can go one 

 better. The fact is, that we again have 

 the celestial stock, and we not only 

 have it in good condition, but we are 

 breeding it. The eggs have hatched 

 and the young are alive and well. This 

 success will bring out some interesting 

 facts and, no doubt, blast some old 

 theories. 



The main peculiarity of the celestial 



CELESTIAL TELESCOPE GOLDFISH 

 Photograph i>> Wm. T. Innes, Jr. 



telescope is that the eyes instead of 

 being placed at the usual angle of the 

 telescope type, look directly upward, 

 giving the fish the appearance of look- 

 ing out of the top of its head. From a 

 side view the pupil of the eye is not 

 visible. Various theories have been 

 advanced as to how the Chinese origin- 

 ated this strain. 

 The generally 

 accepted opin- 

 ion is that it is 

 not a strain at 

 all, but that the 

 peculiarities are 

 produced in in- 

 dividual fish by 

 an artificial pro- 

 cess. The popu- 

 lar thought is 

 that fish of tele- 

 scope stock are 

 reared in dark- 

 ened tanks in 

 which the only 

 illumination is 

 through a slit in 

 the top. The 

 fish by constantly looking at this spot of 

 light above them are supposed to get 

 their eyes so set in the vertical position 

 that it becomes a permanent deform- 

 ity. 



Another theory is that the muscles of 

 the lower portion of the eye-ball are 

 cut, so that the tension of the upper set 

 will pull the eye upward. 



If the celestial is indeed a "made" fish, 



Copyright. 1913. by W. A. Poyse 



