Goldfish, as we know them today, are not merely normal life forms, nor accidents of nature, nor achievements of man, but a very old combination of all three. Nature did the initial work with the creation of Carassius auratus, goldfish from which today's many forms, colors, and variations have been developed.

   At birth the color is silvery olive-gray, but there is a strong tendency to revert to an inherent albinism and also to various forms and peculiarities. Through these-bulging eyes, odd tail and fin formations, patches of red, yellow, silver, or black on the bodies-the great variety of goldfish have been developed, especially by the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, who have worked with the mutant forms for hundreds of years and through thousands of fish generations. It was the Oriental breeders who segregated them and interbred them again and again and again. They exaggerated the mutations until bulging eyes developed into spectacular, telescopic eyes; slightly enlarged fins and tails became magnificent, sweeping veils; patches of red were extended until bodies were covered entirely with beautiful red-gold scales. And these mutations were fixed so that succeeding generations continued to produce true to form.

   China is generally considered the ancestral home of the goldfish. There is one Chinese fairy tale about their magical appearance in a lake near the mountain called Ch'ien-ch'ing, in the ancient Province of Chekiang, back in the misty days of the world's beginning. There is another fairy tale about the early years of the Chou Dynasty, more than seven and a half centuries before Christ, when for one hundred days the world was without rain. While sacrifices were being made to the gods, a sparkling, bubbling well suddenly appeared. A goldfish, the world's first, leaped from the well, and then the rain began to fall. In any case, goldfish were kept as pets during the Sung Dynasty from the late tenth well into the thirteenth century. There are old references to breeders "who can change the color of fish to gold," and recommendations on feeding and the treatment of ills. By the end of the thirteenth century, red, gold, black, and mottled fish seem to have been comparatively easy to buy as pets, having become an accepted part of Chinese culture. Goldfish were pets in Japan by 1500, but it was not until 200 years or so later that the Japanese breeders began cultivating goldfish on such a scale as to make them available to any except the wealthy.