

II -JAPANESE GOLDFISH BREEDS 



The Wild Fish 



|HE wild fish from which the multicolored and multiformed varieties of goldfish have 

 been produced is a very plain species, with nothing to suggest the wonderful 

 possibilities of development which it has undergone. The moderately elongated 

 and compressed body is covered with large, coarse scales; the head is unsealed and 

 smooth; the fins are relatively small, and the color is uniform olivaceous. The 

 normal length is eight to twelve inches. 



The goldfish was originally placed in the same genus as the domesticated Asiatic carp, and 

 was named Cyprinus aitratus by Linnaeus. It differs, however, from the common carp in having 

 no barbels, and in having the pharyngeal teeth in a single row on each side; it has therefore been 

 put in the same genus as the crucian carp or karass, of European waters, and its proper scientific 

 name is Carassius anratns, which literally means the golden or gilded karass. The goldfish is some- 

 times not inappropriately called the gold carp, but this name is not distinctive because a golden variety 

 of the common carp' is now extensively cultivated. 



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