Fishroom Spotlight – Common Goldfish (Carassius Auratus)

Feeding Instruction: As much as will be eaten in 10 seconds, twice a day.

Aquarium Care: Messy Fish. Weekly water changes of 1/4.

Interesting Behaviour: Commonly thought of as the butt of all memory jokes, Goldfish don’t actually have a long term memory of a few seconds. They have actually been shown performing conditioned responses in laboratory studies. In one such case, scientists were able to train a goldfish to push a button that would release a pellet of food. The goldfish would then go and push the button of its own volition whenever it felt peckish. Goldfish are actually used more often than chimpanzees in behavioural studies as they are easier to train and offer key insight in perception trials as young goldfish have a deficiency in recognising the colour blue, much like human infants.

Origin: Descendants of Prussian Carp, Silver Prussian carp. These wild carp originated in Asia; Central Asia (Siberia). Goldfish were originally developed in China. This species was normally a silver or gray color, but early in the Jin Dynasty, somewhere between the years 265 – 420, it was noted that there was a natural genetic mutation producing a yellowish orange color. It became common practice to breed this pretty golden fish for ornamental garden ponds.