This week is Carp Week, so here are some facts about a member of the carp family, the goldfish.
Goldfish are native to China. Wild goldfish are silver or Grey but a common genetic mutation produces a Yellow, gold or Orange colour. They were bred for food in China but selective breeding for colour was first recorded in Imperial China, during the Jin dynasty (266–420).
By law, the yellow variety could only be owned by the imperial family because yellow was their colour. This is in part why orange goldfish are more common.
In 17th century Europe, goldfish were seen as a symbol of good fortune, and it was traditional for a man to give his wife a goldfish on their first anniversary as a symbol of prosperity to come.
In the US, the popularity of pet goldfish came about after the U.S. Commission on Fisheries in Washington DC received an import of Japanese goldfish in 1878 and decided to give them away as a publicity stunt. D.C. residents could submit requests for bowls of goldfish. At the program's peak, 20,000 pets were handed out a year. At one point, a third of all households in the city owned a government-provided goldfish.
The scientific name for a goldfish is Carassius auratus, and a group of them is known as “a troubling,” not a school.
Wild goldfish typically grow to between 4.7 inches (12 cm) and 8.7 inches (22 cm) but can reach 16 inches (41 cm). Pet goldfish, if they are well cared for and kept in the best conditions, can grow even bigger. In 2008 a goldfish measuring 19 inches (48 cm) was recorded in the Netherlands. In the UK, the largest goldfish was Goldie, kept as a pet in Folkestone. Goldie measured 15 inches (38 cm) and weighed over 2 pounds (0.91 kg), and was named the second largest goldfish in the world.
There’s a myth about goldfish that they don’t live very long. This might arise from the fact that if they’re not properly cared for they tend to die young. Treat them right and they can live to be over 40 years old. The oldest recorded goldfish was called Tish, originally a carnival prize. Tish was 43 years old when she died in 1999.
While on the subject of carnival prizes, the use of goldfish as prizes is banned in Rome. Italy also has a law against keeping goldfish in small bowls.
Another myth you might have heard about goldfish is that they have very short memories, something like three seconds. This isn’t true. Being so widely available, they’ve been extensively studied and have been found to be able to remember things for at least three months. Studies have also shown that they can distinguish between individual humans and even different classical composers.
They can survive in anoxic conditions for a short time, especially in low temperatures, which scientists believe may be an adaptation to help them survive in frozen ponds in winter.
New!!!
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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