NEWS107
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against aprofit-motivated lobby that inter
aliapromulgates totally senseless,so-called
animalprotectionandspeciesconservation
legislationwhose long-termobjective is to
completely prohibit private ownership of
animalsandplants.
Wemust never forget that not a singleani-
malspecieshaseverbeenwipedoutbycol-
lection for private maintenance, and that
there is noneed toworry that anythingof
the sort could ever happen, as the laws of
economics also apply toplant and animal
breeding. Specifically, if an animal or plant
speciesbecomesso rare in thewild that the
pricerocketsupwards,then itmakes farbet-
tereconomic sense tobreed it than tocon-
tinuecollecting it.Nowadayswecan,ifneed
be,breedevery speciesof animal andplant
that is indemand formaintenance inado-
mestic setting. And for that reason it has
beenpossible topreservemany species al-
readyextinct in thewild (the reason for this
hasalwaysandwithoutexceptionbeenen-
vironmentaldestruction)throughconserva-
tion breeding before their eventual ex-
tinction tookplace.
TheGoldfish -a trendsetter
Butback to theGoldfish!Without theGold-
fish there would surely be no aquarium
hobby at all. This fish was and remains a
RedDragonEye
CalicoFringetail
around 1850, with Emil Adolf Roßmässler
being regardedas the "Father of aquarium
science",whomadethemaintenanceofani-
mals and plants in the aquarium popular
through numerousmagazine articles. The
foundations for organizationsdealingwith
aquariumand terrarium sciencewere like-
wise laid in thesecondhalfof the19thcen-
tury.TheHottonia inDarmstadt,forexample,
wasfounded in1897and isoneoftheoldest
organizations of its kind still in existence
anywhere in theworld.Roßmässler'sobjec-
tivewastobringpeopleclosertothenatural
historyofGermany.The industrial revolution,
and the associatedurbanizationof a large
part of the population, on the one hand
createdaneed for involvementwithnature
inadomesticsetting,andontheotherawa-
kenedfearsamongnature-loversthatthe in-
creasingdistancingofcity-dwellersfromna-
turemight have serious consequences for
the levelofeducationamong thepopulace.
Unfortunately these fears provedonly too
justified.Thecatastrophicenvironmentalde-
struction tobe seen inour times, resulting
from the ignoranceanddesire forprofitofa
smallnumberofpeopleandresulting inthe
extinctionof entirehabitatswith the flora
and fauna they contain, is a direct conse-
quenceof the separationof humans from
nature.Thenatural scienceorganizations -
be they aquarists, terrarium keepers,bree-
dersofbirds,smallanimalenthusiasts,orchid
andcactusbreeders,butterflycollectors,and
so forth -are themost importantbastion in
thebattleagainstglobalenvironmentalde-
struction and theworldwide extinctionof
species.Wecanonlyprotectwhatweknow
about!Forthisreasonnowadaysnaturalsci-
enceorganizationsaremassivelyembattled
strokeof luck for aquarium science, as the
genus
Carassius
, towhich theGoldfishbe-
longs(thescientificnameoftheoriginalwild
form is
Carassius auratus
, domesticated
formsdon't receivescientificnamesof their
own, but have the same one as the wild
form) containsoutstanding survival specia-
lists.TheEuropeanCrucianCarp (
Carassius
carassius
) isspecializedonverysmallbodies
ofwater andhence can even survive for a
while inwater containingnooxygen (itob-
tains life-givingoxygen from itsbody fat), is
extremelyresistanttotoxinssuchasnowre-
gularly occur in deteriorating waters, and
canevensurvive temporarydrying-upof its
habitat byburying itself in themudof the
bottom.It isadisgrace that this fishhashad
tobeplacedon theRedListofendangered
species in Germany because the type of
pools that theCrucianCarp requires asha-
bitat aren't tolerated inour tidy cultivated
landscape.
Goldfishesare tough fellows
TheGoldfishsharessomeoftheresilienceof
theCrucianCarp.Andso ittolerates (almost)
everymistakethenovicecanpossiblymake
in themaintenanceof fishes.Inaddition the
Goldfish isan indispensableoccupantofthe
ornamentalpond.Andsincetime immemo-
rialGoldfisheshavebred insuchponds,pro-
vidingamagical attraction formischievous
