THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOLDFISH 



to collect the animalculas 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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