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Brown Goldfish


The Flying Tench

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I caught a couple of brown goldfish yesterday about the same size, best 1 lb 5 oz, in a local gravel pit. No big deal, everyone catches them. But I looked up my John Wilson fishing encyclopaedia and was surprised to see a 'mega specimen' was anything over a pound. I then tried google and saw a lot of hype about a goldfish in a tank that had reached 2lbs which, people claimed, was exceptional. Then I think I came across reality which was that the British record for brown goldfish is 5lb 11oz, so there is clearly nothing unusual about a 1lb plus fish.

 

So question one answered, but here is question 2: 'How come the goldfish are brown?'

 

I appreciate the fact that naturally the fish are probably brown, but I assume the way they get into most waters is that someone dumps a few goldie ones from their fish tank. Now I can see that, over a few generations, the preds will tend to weed out the more brightly coloured ones, so the bright orange genes will slowly die out, but in my local gravel pit there are no pike - aaagh, I should have thought, there are perch! Maybe that is the answer?

john clarke

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I caught a couple of brown goldfish yesterday about the same size, best 1 lb 5 oz, in a local gravel pit. No big deal, everyone catches them. But I looked up my John Wilson fishing encyclopaedia and was surprised to see a 'mega specimen' was anything over a pound. I then tried google and saw a lot of hype about a goldfish in a tank that had reached 2lbs which, people claimed, was exceptional. Then I think I came across reality which was that the British record for brown goldfish is 5lb 11oz, so there is clearly nothing unusual about a 1lb plus fish.

 

So question one answered, but here is question 2: 'How come the goldfish are brown?'

 

I appreciate the fact that naturally the fish are probably brown, but I assume the way they get into most waters is that someone dumps a few goldie ones from their fish tank. Now I can see that, over a few generations, the preds will tend to weed out the more brightly coloured ones, so the bright orange genes will slowly die out, but in my local gravel pit there are no pike - aaagh, I should have thought, there are perch! Maybe that is the answer?

 

I could be wrong John, but I expect they're just stocked like that?

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music

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I'm no expert on this but I thought all 'Goldfish' are naturally brown and the gold exotic colour's have been bred into them and given free reign they revert back to their natural state maybe in the same way for instance a Plum tree that has been grafted onto a hardier Wild Plum tree stock, will if left along, revert back to a Wild Plum annexing it's ornamental side.

Brown Goldfish are just a sub species of normal Carp.

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I have a large pond in my garden, I put in some bog standard gold fish a few years back, not I have hundreds of brown gold fish, and very very few with color. The original fish have all been eaten by herons, the brown ones have faired better and breed each year.

I can only say that they seem to go back to brown in one genaration, the odd fish has some color but is never fully gold.

Jasper Carrot On birmingham city

" You lose some you draw some"

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It's not just the obvious predators like pike, perch and herons that will eat small goldfish. I haven't seen any new goldfish in my pond for years. I have no doubt that any of the big golden orfe or koi would think nothing of scoffing goldfish fry. So now I have a small, ageing population of big fish! Or have I? If I drained it down, I'd be very surprised not to find a few very dark "brown goldfish" that have managed to hide away deep in the plants.

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Many years ago I was given one of those fat, fantailed, goggle-eyed monstrosities that was all black. It stayed like that for about five years, then a year later it was completely orange.

English as tuppence, changing yet changeless as canal water, nestling in green nowhere, armoured and effete, bold flag-bearer, lotus-fed Miss Havishambling, opsimath and eremite, feudal, still reactionary, Rawlinson End.

 

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a few years back when i first dug my new pond the first fish i put in where a few gold fish from the local petshop as a water test to make sure the water was right for fish before i introduced my koi from the old pond,

 

some of the goldfish now are about a 1lb and every year mange to spawn and i scoop out as many of the fry as i can, and give them to the local petshop, but most are brown to completely black and start to get more orange as they get bigger some lighten slightly and some stay jet back in colour

 

if they spawn twice in a year there seems to be more of the glassic orange colour the 2nd time, which is odd

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Goldfish go through colour phases as they age. I think I am right in saying all goldfish start off brown and turn gold later on in life.

 

Light and food effects how they eventually turn out depending on their genes.

2PhJuly2013sig_zps25c667b8.jpg


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