Mini Encyclopedia of Goldfish: Expert Practical Guidance on Keeping Goldfish Plus Detailed Profiles of All the Major Varieties - Softcover

Russell-Davies, Julia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1770856102 ISBN 13: 9781770856103

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2015

Synopsis

A comprehensive guide to caring for the smallest member of the carp family.

This book is for the hobbyist who needs a reliable and authoritative reference on how to keep fancy goldfish. Goldfish need a large tank (at least 10 gallons per fish) and one fish can cost as little as $10.00 to as much as $300 and higher for a large, rare variety. While fancy goldfish do not command the exorbitant prices of their cousins, koi carp, keeping them still requires money and an investment of time.

Mini Encyclopedia of Goldfish covers all aspects of caring for the smallest member of the carp family. There are sixteen varieties of fancy goldfish, each with elaborate colors and physical features. The book provides a profile of each variety and all of the practical information needed to keep a healthy freshwater tank in which goldfish will thrive.

The book includes:

• History and biology of goldfish
• Types and colors: Egg-shaped, Fancy-finned, Goggle-eyed
• The 16 varieties of goldfish
• Starting Out: Selection; Setting up the aquarium
• Water quality and testing, aquarium maintenance
• Caring for your goldfish: Feeding, healthcare, common illnesses
• Breeding: Taking care of goldfish fry, showing goldfish.

Mini Encyclopedia of Goldfish is ideal for both new and experienced hobbyists.

About this title

About the Author

Julia Russell-Davies is an experienced goldfish owner and breeder with a particular interest in raising the standard of goldfish keeping and the welfare standards for these popular pets.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The goldfish is a member of the Cyprinidae variety of freshwater fish of the order Cypriniformes. All goldfish belong to a single species, Carassius Auratus, and are members of the carp family (which also include Koi carp and the Crucian carp). The goldfish that we know today were first domesticated by the Chinese and have now been kept as pets for over a thousand years. After hundreds of years of selective breeding, goldfish now vary greatly in size, body shape, and fin configuration. They also come in a wide variety of colors, including white, yellow, orange, red, brown and black. This diversity is certainly part of their appeal to goldfish keepers. A tank of fancy goldfish can make an exotic and fascinating focus for any room, and the owners can also become very fond of their pet fish. Goldfish can become tame and will learn to recognize their owners and to understand that humans are not a threat to them.

Today's goldfish have been bred selectively by Chinese, Japanese and European fish keepers for hundreds of years, and this has created some extraordinary goldfish varieties. Some of these are extremely weird and wonderful. "Fancy" goldfish varieties have very extreme characteristics, ranging from the slow-swimming black Moor goldfish, with their trailing fins and boggling eyes, to the hooded and egg-shaped Ranchu (known to the Japanese as the "King of Goldfish"). It is extraordinary to think that all modern goldfish are derived from the plain but hardy wild brown carp. Early Chinese fish keepers of the Sung Dynasty period (960 to 1279 A.D.) were the first selective goldfish breeders. They noticed that the little brown river carp sometimes produced mutated golden fish with brighter, shinier scales and unusual fin shapes. It was during this time that individual fish, or pairs of fish, were first kept as pets in decorative shallow bowls, and the breeding of fancy goldfish began. The "mutated" fish were the forerunners of all of today's goldfish. The Common Goldfish, for example, is only one genetic step removed from the ancestral carp.

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770856102
• ISBN 13: 9781770856103
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160