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A red-cap oranda goldfish swimming towards the camera out of black water, its white fins trailing and its orange hood lit from above

A field guide to Carassius auratus

The goldfish, kept well.

Start with the care guide Keep scrolling

How long a goldfish lives

A goldfish can outlive the family dog.

Ranges and record: how long goldfish live.

The bowl was never the plan.

The approach

A goldfish is a carp. Everything here follows from taking that seriously: the tank it will outgrow, the water it lives in, the decades it can last.

Read the complete care guide Or start with the tank

The breeds

A thousand years, twenty-one fish.

Every goldfish is one species. These are its breeds in the order they first appear in the record, as far as the record allows: from the pond fish of Song-dynasty China to a Thai cross recognised in 2006.

  1. No. 01Song dynasty, a thousand years ago Common Goldfish China
  2. No. 02Ming dynasty Fantail China
  3. No. 03Traditionally dated to 1502 Wakin Japan
  4. No. 04By the late 16th century Telescope China
  5. No. 05Early Edo period, from wakin stock Jikin Japan
  6. No. 06Poorly documented; dates vary Lionhead China
  7. No. 07Name first recorded in 1748 Ranchu Japan
  8. No. 08After the telescope, date unrecorded Black Moor China
  9. No. 09Depicted by 1772; dates differ Celestial Eye China
  10. No. 10Reached Japan in the 1770s or 1780s Ryukin China and Japan
  11. No. 11Reached Nagasaki around 1800 Oranda China and Japan
  12. No. 1219th century, in Tosa Tosakin Japan
  13. No. 13The 1880s Comet United States
  14. No. 14First bred in 1892, named in 1900 Shubunkin Japan
  15. No. 15Established by about 1900 Veiltail Philadelphia
  16. No. 16On record from the late 1890s Pompom China
  17. No. 17First recorded around 1900 Pearlscale China
  18. No. 18Early 20th century; one account says 1908 Bubble Eye China
  19. No. 19Described in 1917, then lost Meteor Philadelphia
  20. No. 20Recognised as a class in 2006 Lionchu Thailand
  21. No. 21Modern times, date unrecorded Tamasaba Niigata, Japan
  22. Compare all 21 in the atlas Each fish is cut from its breed’s own photograph, credited on that breed’s page.
An ink drawing of a deep-bodied goldfish with no tail fin, its dorsal and anal fins greatly elongated and streaming behind the body
Fig. 23, The Meteor. Original drawing from life, in W. T. Innes, Goldfish Varieties and Tropical Aquarium Fishes (Philadelphia, 1917), p. 38. Plate: Franklin Barrett — Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

From the atlas

The goldfish that survives only as a drawing.

Most fish in the atlas are described by what they have. The meteor is described by what is missing: its body stops where the tail should begin. A 1917 book from Philadelphia says it had been bred until the type was well fixed and that it was shown at exhibitions; after that the record goes quiet.

No verified population is known. What survives is a paragraph of text and one drawing, made from a living fish.

Read what the record shows

The guide

Everything a goldfish needs, in the order it needs it.

  1. Care Water, space, food and routine, from the first day to old age. 51 guides
  2. Breeds One species, bred for a thousand years into very different fish. 21 breeds
  3. Health What you can see, what it may mean, and when to call a vet. 27 symptoms
  4. Aquarium Volume, filtration, cycling and the setup that works. 29 guides
  5. Food What to feed, how much, and how often. 16 guides
  6. Tools Tank size, stocking, water, feeding and age, worked out for you. 7 tools

A few places to start

    Put gold.fish on your home screen

    It opens full screen, like any app, and the pages you have read open without a connection.

    1. Tap Share

      The square with an arrow pointing up. In Safari it is in the bar at the bottom of the screen, or at the top on an iPad; if you see only the address, tap ••• beside it first. In Chrome it is at the right of the address bar.

    2. Choose Add to Home Screen

      If it is not in the list, scroll down, or tap View More.

    3. Tap Add

      If your iPhone shows Open as Web App, leave it on. The icon joins your other apps.

    1. Open the browser’s menu

      The three dots at the top right in Chrome, or the three lines at the bottom in Samsung Internet.

    2. Choose Install app

      Some browsers call it Add to Home screen; in Samsung Internet it is under Add page to.

    3. Tap Install

      The icon joins your other apps, on the home screen and in the app drawer.