NEWS102
16
Evergreens
Wild coloredGoldfish,
Carassiusauratus
All photos:FrankSchäfer
he natural coloration of the wild
goldfish is olive-brown. Other
colours may be found in some lowland
river locations,
small lakes,
and
backwaters, but these are thought to be
the
result
of
introductions
of
domesticated varieties (although colour
variationsdoexist in truewild stocks).
The twobest knowngoldfish relatives are
the gibel or Prussian carp (
C. gibelio
) and
the crucian or bronze carp (
C. carassius
).
T
Tomany fish lovers, thegoldfish is abrightly coloured fishwhich is
active,butpeaceful, isabout5cm longandhasasimple,streamlined
body shapewith large friendly-lookingeyes.
Yet, the commongoldfish that everyone knows is, despite its basic
finnage and body shape, at least one step removed from the ‘real’
goldfish.
AGoldfish isa
Goldfish…or is it?
by JohnDawes
Thegoldfishand thegibel carpwereonce
believed to be so closely related as to be
subspecies, i.e.
C. auratus auratus
and
C.
auratusgibelio
.
The goldfish is native to China, central
Asia, Japan and certain parts of Siberia,
while the gibel carp, although also found
in western Siberia, is usually reported as
being amainly easternEuropean fish.The
two may be told apart by slight
anatomical differences such as the size of
the head relative to the body (smaller in
thegibel carp),numbers of gill rakers (35-
46 in the goldfish and 39-50 in the gibel
carp), fin rays and lateral line scale counts.
However,
the
virtually
worldwide
introduction of the goldfish into natural
bodies of water often clouds the true
distribution and nature of many of the
populations found in thewild.
The other widely distributed European
carpwhich shares certain similaritieswith
both the goldfish and the gibel carp i.e.
the bronze or crucian carp, is also olive-
brown, but has a considerably deeper
body, a convex outline to its dorsal fin,
grows toa larger size–up to64cm (max),
compared to 48cm and 45cm (max) for
the other two, respectively – and has
