TROPICAL AQUARIUM FISHES 23 
Earty Variations. In breeding single-tail fishes together in which 
there is no known double-tail stock, one will sometimes find a fish with 
the lower lobe of the tail double, making it a reasonable supposition that 
this was the first “break” in form away from the common stock. This 
is called a “tripod tail.” The next higher development is the “web-tail” 
in which both tails are fully formed but joined at the top edge instead of 
being completely divided. From these early “breaks” have been developed 
the fully divided tails, double anal fins et cetera. 
By careful selective breeding, types have become fairly well fixed, 
but the goldfish has a strong tendency to revert far back to ancestral 
types, in form as well as color, often to the annoyance of the breeder. 
One of the most interesting things about a spawning of goldfishes is the 
tremendous variety in the young. In a lot of a thousand young scaleless 
fishes there may not be two alike, and none may resemble either parent. 
That this, however, is not always so is a self-evident fact, else selective 
breeding would be without results. 
The accomplishments of Oriental breeders seems only to be limited 
by the scope of the imagination. Through the most patient efforts, not 
only of a lifetime, but of several generations of a family, such changes 
have been wrought in form and color that some of the breeds do not 
seem to even distantly resemble the common goldfish. That this is so is 
often evidenced by the fact that strangers to the fancy on first seeing a 
collection of highly developed fishes want to know what they are. An 
amusing incident illustrating this point occured in the preparation of the 
present volume. The engraver who made the plate for the goldfish 
design on the outside cover billed the publishers with “One Cut of But- 
terfly”! Those outside the fancy sometimes seriously refer to the fins of 
fancy specimens as “wings.” Among fanciers a high dorsal fin is often 
referred to as the “sail.” 
When it is borne in mind what a considerable period of time must 
have been necessary to bring about these strange breeds, it is not surpris- 
ing that racial ideas and characteristics should, to a certain degree, be ex- 
pressed in them. The Telescope Goldfish was originated in China and 
undoubtedly bears a resemblance to Chinese art. It has a sort of beau- 
tiful ugliness, a deliberate grotesqueness, intended first to shock and then 
excite curiosity. The wonderful range of colors, too, suggests the art 
of the Chinese—that race which continues to-day to lead the world in 
the clever use of color. The Japanese Fringetail Goldfish is another 
expression of national art. It is the very embodiment of that aesthetic 
elegance and grace so well understood by the Japanese people. America 
has not been without its logical contribution. Here in this vast melting 
pot it is our desire to bring forth combinations of the best from the old 
