Greater Than Gold

Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how much of an impact mankind has had on the other species that share this world with us and just how much of a hand we’ve had in shaping their very evolution. Once mankind domesticated the dog, for example, thousands of years of selective breeding eventually lead to the huge range of breeds we see today, from large and powerful working dogs like Rottweilers to “toy breeds” such as Chihuahuas and every imaginable variation in-between.

It’s no surprise then that selective breeding has had a similarly huge impact on the aquatic world and on goldfish in particular. While almost everyone is familiar with the “common” orange-gold form of goldfish, there are a huge number of other shapes and colour variations that have come about thanks to hundreds of years of selective breeding.

Much like dogs, modern domesticated goldfish have come a very long way from their original ancestors, and the explosion of colours is a far cry from the rather drab olive-bronze of their wild Asian cousins. Wild populations lack the larger fins, protruding eyes and colouration of aquarium specimens, and these characteristics are only maintained in the domesticated forms by selective breeding.

All of the shubunkins, sarasas, canaries and comets available today are simply different “breeds” of goldfish, and all will happily cross-breed to give a kaleidoscope of colour to rival koi in smaller ponds. Even the fantastically varied forms of the “Fancy” goldfish such pearlscales and lionheads are the result of genetic mutations which man has spotted and favoured by selective line breeding to perpetuate them according to fancy and fashion. Today, goldfish are even prized and celebrated in the types of organised shows normally associated with koi worth many thousands of pounds, with points awarded for details such as body shape, colour, finnage, deportment and other special characteristics.