II -JAPANESE GOLDFISH BREEDS 



The IVild Fish 



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

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

 possibilities of de^-elopment 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 Cypriiiiis miratus by Linnaeus. It dififers, 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 Carassiiis auratiis, 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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