20 GOLDFISH VARIETIES AND 
THE GOLDFISH 
There are two root-stocks from which the goldfishes of to-day have 
originated. Both are members of the carp family. The European gold- 
fish, Carassius carassius, has never been developed into any of the fancy 
forms except by crossing with cultivated types of the Asiatic stock, Ca- 
rassius auratus. 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. Of this more will be said 
later. 
Fic. 9. THe Common GotpFisH (Carassius auratus) 
Although a common American goldfish has been described by at 
least one writer, no such division properly exists. Those sometimes 
found in American waters are invariably from escaped or liberated stock 
from one of the two varieties mentioned, or from their hybrids. 
The normal color 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 the 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 ten- 
dency among goldfish to revert to the ancestral stock. 
