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Sometime during the seventeenth century, Portuguese sailors saw a very beautiful variety of fish. These fish were swimming in the lakes and rivers of China and Japan. They glistened like gold. The sailors captured some specimens. Then they brought them to Portugal.

The little fish found the lakes of Europe as nice to live in as the lakes of China. They at once domesticated themselves, and raised their little families. Soon the European streams became well stocked with these beautiful creatures. Today, they are also found in many brooks and streams in the United States.

The gold-fish belongs to the genus Cyprinus, or the great carp family, and is sometimes called the golden carp.

Breeding Goldfish
The glistening gold-color of these fishes made them much sought for as household ornaments. Demand for them became so great that businesses were opened for raising them for the market. One of the largest and most well-known of these places for goldfish breeding is in Oldenburg, Germany. There, more than a hundred small ponds contain the fish in all stages of growth. They include the tiniest baby to the big stout fellow. Some fish eight, and even ten, inches long.

Goldfish as Pets
There are grades of beauty in goldfish as well as in all other things. They are very pretty household ornaments. By caring for them and carefully watching their habits, boys and girls may learn their first lesson in natural history. If kept in a glass globe, nothing can be more interesting than to watch them. Still, the fish may be healthier if kept in an aquarium. This allows more surface to the water, and consequently more air and ventilation. In any case, fresh water should be given the fish at least every other day. If the globe or aquarium be ornamented with rocks and water-grasses, the fish should be carefully dipped out once a week. Then the rocks should be thoroughly cleansed from all impurities.

Feeding Goldfish
Although the fish draw nourishment from the water, and will live a long time without other food, it is advisable to feed them by throwing bread-crumbs, or flies and other small insects, on the surface of the water. The eagerness with which they dart for them proves them to be welcome. Care should be taken not to scatter more bread-crumbs than will be immediately eaten. Bread sours very quickly, and renders the water impure. In changing the water the fish should never be subjected to any sudden variation of temperature. The shock produced by a violent change from water of medium temperature, which is always best, to ice-cold, might ruin the whole stock of an aquarium in an instant.

The Nature of Goldfish
The little ones are carefully kept apart from larger ones. This is because the goldfish is a wicked cannibal. It devours its little brothers and sisters. It will even devour its own children, whenever it has an opportunity.

At the same time the goldfish is a great coward. It will hide away from fish much smaller than itself that might want to attack it. A gentleman who owned an aquarium in which there were several large goldfish, once placed a tiny "pumpkin-seed," or sunfish, about the size of a silver half dollar, in the water. Watching anxiously to see that the goldfish did not injure it, he was surprised to see the "pumpkin-seed" dart furiously at the larger fish. The larger fish huddled themselves in a corner, or scurried hastily through the water to hide among the stones and grottoes of the aquarium! From that moment the "pumpkin-seed" remained lord of the field. It scarcely allowed his companions to come to the surface or to take a mouthful of food until he had satisfied his own hunger. Finally he had to be removed from the aquarium. This saved the goldfish from dying of fright.

The ingenious Chinese make great pets of their goldfish. With patience they teach them many tricks. For example, they teach them to eat from their hands, or to rush to be fed at the tinkle of a bell.

Grade 4 Animals (Stories) CCSS: CCRA.R.5, RI.4.5

Why does the author most likely include the detail about the tricks the Chinese teach their goldfish?

To provide a cool fact about goldfish
To give another reason why goldfish can make neat pets
To share a reason goldfish should be removed from the wild
To help explain how smart goldfish really are

Question Info

Animals (Stories) Question

Grade 4 Animals (Stories) CCSS: CCRA.R.5, RI.4.5