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During the Tang Dynasty, it was popular for Chinese ponds to have
carp. As the result of a genetic mutation one of these carp displayed
"gold" (actually yellowish orange) rather than silver
coloration. This mutation is associated with a dominant gene which
also makes the breeding of this trait rather easy. The gold strain
became popular for keeping in containers. Afterwards, the people
began to breed the gold variety instead of the silver variety, and
began to keep them in small containers to watch.
In 1162, the empress ordered the building of a pond to collect
the red and gold variety of those carp. By this time, people outside
the royal family were forbidden to keep goldfish of the gold (yellow)
variety. An order was given to the keepers to kill all fish that
were yellow in color because it offended the court, since this itself
was the royal color. This probably is the reason of why there are
more orange goldfish than yellow goldfish, even though it is genetically
easier to breed yellow.
Since they were bred in captivity, more mutations occurred, which
produced more colors. As a result, fancier varieties of goldfish
appeared. According to old books and records, the occurrence of
other colors were first recorded in 1276. The first occurrence of
fancy tailed goldfish was recorded in the Ming dynasty. In 1502,
goldfish were introduced to Japan, where the Ryukin and Tosakin
varieties were developed.
In 1611, goldfish were introduced to Portugal and from there, they
were introduced to other parts of Europe. Goldfish were first introduced
to North America in 1874 and quickly became popular in the United
States.
Goldfish natively live in ponds, and other slow or still moving
bodies of water in depths up to 20 m (65 ft). Their native climate
is subtropical and they live in freshwater with a 6.0–8.0 pH,
a water hardness of 5.0–19.0 dGH, and a temperature range of
40 to 106 °F (4 to 41 °C) although they will not survive
long at the higher temperatures. Indeed, they are considered ill-suited
even to live in a heated tropical fish tank, as they are used to
the greater amount of oxygen in unheated tanks as well as the heat
burns them. When found in nature, the goldfish are actually an olive
green color, and will return to this color if domesticated and then
released.
In the wild, the diet consists of crustaceans, insects, and various
plant matter.
While it is true that goldfish can survive in a fairly wide temperature
range, the optimal range for indoor fish is 68 to 75 °F (20
to 23 °C). Pet goldfish, as with many other fish, will usually
eat more food than it needs if given, which can lead to fatal intestinal
blockage. They are omnivorous and do best with a wide variety of
fresh vegetables and fruit to supplement a flake or pellet diet
staple.
Sudden changes in water temperature can be fatal to any fish, including
the goldfish. When transferring a store-bought goldfish to a pond
or a tank, the temperature in the storage container should be equalized
by leaving it in the destination container for at least 20 minutes
before releasing the goldfish. In addition, some temperature changes
might simply be too great for even the hardy goldfish to adjust
to. For example, buying a goldfish in a store, where the water might
be 70 °F (approximately 21 °C), and hoping to release it
into your garden pond at 40 °F (4 °C) will probably result
in the death of the goldfish, even if you use the slow immersion
method just described. A goldfish will need a lot more time, perhaps
days or weeks, to adjust to such a different temperature.
Because the goldfish likes to eat live plants, keeping it with
plants in an aquarium can be quite a problem. Only a few of the
aquarium plant species can survive in a tank with goldfishes, for
example Cryptocoryne and Anubias species, but they require special
attention so that they are not uprooted.
All text is available under the terms
of the GNU Free Documentation License
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