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Chapter Two 



Tke Goldfisn 





There are two root-stocks from which the goldfishes of today 

 have originated. Both are members of the carp family. The Euro- 

 pean goldfish, Carassiiis carassiiis, has never been developed into any 

 of the fancy forms except by crossing with cultivated types of the 

 Asiatic stock, Carassiiis aurafiis. The Orientals, principally those of 

 Korea, China and Japan, must be given credit for first establishing, by 

 selective breeding, the goldfish as an ornamental pet, as well as for 

 the incredible lengths to which they have gone in fixing fancy breeds. 



Although a common American goldfish has been described by at 

 least one writer, no such division properly exists. Those sometiines 

 found in American waters are invariably from escaped or liberated 

 stock from one of the two varieties mentioned, or from their hybrids. 



The normal colof of fishes of both root-stocks is of a silver-gray 

 or olivate hue, but with a strong natural tendency towards albinism, 

 which produces occasional specimens of a yellow or golden color. By 

 selective breeding these colors have become fairly well fixed, although 

 in the scaled varieties the color is still at first carp-like, turning to gold, 

 white or black, as a rule, in from three to eight months. Instances are 

 quite common where they live to an old age without ever turning, so 

 strong is the tendency among goldfishes to revert to the ancestral 

 strain. 



Colors in Goldfishes. There are two great divisions among gold- 

 fishes as to color — the scaled and the so-called "scaleless" classes. The 

 scakd specimens are those having a metallic lustre, usually of red, 

 white, olive-gray or black. The great majority of commercially bred 

 stock belongs to the scaled division. The more prized colors in com- 

 mon goldfishes are deep red (called "gold"), white (called "pearl") and 

 a combination of the two. 



The smoke-colored fishes are known as silverfishes, their color and 

 metallic lustre somewhat resembling tarnished silver. It is the 

 ancestral carp color, and every "scaled" goldfish first passes through 



