Order:	Cypriniformes
Family:	Cyprinidae
Genus and species:	Carassius auratus auratus
	Carassius auratus gibelio

William Yarrell (1836) in "A History of British Fishes":

THE GOLD CARP.

Cyprinus	auratus,	Linnæus.Bloch, Pt. iii. pl. 93, 94.
"	"	Gold Carp,	Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 490.
"	"	Golden Carp,,	Flem. Brit. An. p. 185, sp. 3.
"	"	Cuvier, Règne An. t. ii, p. 272.

The date of the first introduction of the Golden Carp, or Gold and Silver Fish, as they are more frequently called, is differently stated by authors : 1611, 1691, and 1728, are each recorded as the particular year in which they were first brought over. The earliest seen in France were sent there for Madame Pompadour.
Pennant says, "In China the most beautiful kinds are taken in a small lake in the province of Che-Kyang. Every person of fashion keeps them, for amusement, either in porcelain vessels, or in the small basins that decorate the courts of the Chinese houses. The beauty of their colours, and their lively motions, give great entertainment. especially to the ladies, whose pleasures, from the policy of that country, are extremely limited." The Chinese call their fish with a whistle to receive their food.*
A correspondent in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. iii. page 478, considers "that they were probably introduced into Portugal at an early period, after the people of that country had discovered the route to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, as they appear to be now completely naturalised there, and abound in many of their streams, whence they are brought to us by trading vessels from Lisbon, St. Ubes, &c. in large earthen jars, and may be had at a very easy rate before they get into other hands. They have also been introduced and naturalised in the Mauritius by the French, where they now abound in fishponds and streams, and are served up at table as agreeable food, with the other fresh-water fishes, to the brood of which they are thought to be very inimical, by destroying their spawn and young fry. The extreme elegance of the form of the Golden Carp, the splendour of their scaly covering, the case and agility of their movements, and the facility with which they are kept alive in very small vessels, place them amongst the most pleasing and desirable of our pets."
"They even recommend themselves by another agreeable quality - that of appearing to entertain an affection for each other. A person who kept two together in a glass gave one of them away ; the other refused to eat, and showed evident symptoms of unhappiness till his companion was restored to him." - Jesse's Gleanings.
This fish breeds freely in small ponds and even in tanks in this country ; but particularly so if, by any means, the temperature of the water can be maintained at an elevation above the ordinary mean.
"It is well known that in manufacturing districts, where there is an inadequate supply of cold water for the condensation of the steam employed in the engines, recourse is had to what are called engine-dams or ponds, into which the water from the steam-engine is thrown for the purpose of being cooled : in these dams, the average temperature of which is about eighty degrees, it is common to keep Gold-fish ; and it is a notorious fact, that they multiply in these situations much more rapidly than in ponds of lower temperature, exposed to the variations of the climate. Three pair of this species were put into one of these dams, where they increased so rapidly, that at the end of three years their progeny, which were accidentally poisoned by verdigris mixed with the refuse tallow from the engine, were taken out by wheelbarrows-full. Gold-fish are by no means useless inhabitants of these dams : they consume the refuse grease, which would otherwise impede the cooling of the water by accumulating on its surface."
A few authentic notices of the power of fishes in bearing extremes of high and low temperature may not improperly be introduced here.
"Desfontaines found a Sparus of Lacépède, the Chromis of Cuvier, in the hot waters of Cafsa in Barbary, in which Reaumur's thermometer rose to thirty degrees, equal to eighty-six of Fahrenheit. Shaw saw small fishes of the Mullet and Perch kind in these springs." - Travels in Barbary, folio edit. Oxford : 1738, p. 231.
Saussure, speaking of the hot springs of Aise in Savoy says : "I have frequently examined the temperature of these waters at different seasons, and have always found it very nearly alike (about 113 Fahr.). Notwithstanding the heat of these waters, living animals are found in the basins which receive them. I saw in them eels, rotifera, and infusoria, in 1790."
"At Feriana, the ancient Thala," says Bruce, "are baths of warm water without the town : in these were a number of fish, about four inches in length, not unlike Gudgeons. Upon trying the heat by the thermometer, I remember to have been much surprised that they could have existed or even not been boiled, by continuing so long in the heat of this medium."
"The facts mentioned by Sonnerat and other travellers induced Broussonnet to make some experiments on the degree of heat which river fish are capable of enduring. The details of the degrees of heat are not stated, but many species lived for several days in water which was so hot that the hand could not be retained in it for a single minute."
The five preceding notices are from Dr. Hodgkin's additions to the translation of Dr. W. F. Edwards's French work "On the Influence of Physical Agents on Life."
"In the thermal springs of Bahia in Brazil, many small fishes were seen swimming in a rivulet which raises the thermometer eleven and a half degrees above the temperature of the air."
"Humboldt and Bonpland, when travelling in South America, perceived fishes thrown up alive, and apparently in health, from the bottom of a volcano, in the course of its explosions, along with water and heated vapour that raised the thermometer to two hundred and ten degrees, being but two degrees below the boiling point."
The power of fishes to sustain a low temperature is equally extraordinary ; "for that these," says John Hunter, in his Animal Œconomy, "after being frozen, still retain so much of life as when thawed to resume their vital actions, is a fact so well attested that we are bound to believe it."
"Perch have been frozen, and in this condition transported for miles. If, when in this state, fishes are placed in water near a fire, they soon begin to exhibit symptoms of reanimation ; the fins quiver, the gills open, the fish gradually turns itself on its belly, and moves slowly round the vessel, till at length, completely revived, it swims briskly about."**
But to return to the fish before us : I need not occupy space by attempting to describe a species so well known, and of which the variations in colour, fin-rays, and even in the fins, are so numerous, as to appear to bear some proportion to the degree and extent of the domestication. M. de Sauvigny, in his Histoire Naturelle des Dorades de la Chine, published at Paris in 1780, has given coloured varieties of this Carp, exhibit-ing almost every possible shade or combination of silver, brilliant orange, and purple. I have referred to variations in the fins themselves. These fishes are sometimes seen with double anal fins, and others with triple tails : when this occurs, it is generally at the expense of the whole or part of some other fin : thus the specimens with triple tails are frequently without any portion of the dorsal fin, and such specimens have been figured by Bloch and others. Among two dozen Gold-fish for sale in London, were some with dorsal fins extending more than half the length of the back ; some, on the contrary, had dorsal fins of five or six rays only, and one specimen without any dorsal fin whatever yet this fish appeared to preserve its perpendicular position with the same case as any of the others. This induced me to make an experiment, in order to ascertain whether the sudden privation of the dorsal fin would produce any more apparent inconvenience than was observable in the specimen just referred to.
For this purpose I attended at the Zoological Society's Garden a short time before the hour at which the Otter was fed daily with his accustomed meal of living fish. Nine or ten Roach and Dace were placed with plenty of water in a large tub of three feet diameter. Five or six of these fish I took from the tub one after another, and with a pair of scissors cut off the whole of the dorsal fin close to the back, returning each fish to the water. They were but little or scarcely at all affected, and each fish appeared to preserve its perpendicular position, or to ascend or descend in the water with the same ease and certainty as before the privation ; the mutilated, swimming among the unmutilated, seemed to possess the same powers. I did not carry the experiment beyond ascertaining this point, and in a few minutes the fish were consigned to the Otter.
When Gold-fish breed in ponds or tanks under favourable circumstances, the young attain the length of five inches in the first twelve months, but their growth afterwards is much less rapid. I have not seen any specimen that exceeded ten inches in length. The young are dark-coloured at first, almost black, changing more or less rapidly according to constitutional power.

* I think it was Sir Joseph Banks who used to collect his fish by sounding a bell, and Carew, the Cornish historian, brought his Grey Mullet together to be fed by a noise made with two sticks, see page 202.
** T. S. Bushnan's Introduction to the study of Nature.

Frank Buckland (1880) in "Natural History of British Fishes":

PRUSSIAN CARP.

(Cyprinus gibelio.)

Local names: The Crowger, Warwickshire; Gibel. French : La Carpe Gibéle. German : Der Giebel.

THIS fish is often confounded with the common carp. The common carp, however, has two little barbules at each corner of the mouth, while in the mouth of the Prussian carp no beards whatever exist.
The Gibel Carp is thicker, more chub-like than the common carp ; it very much resembles the rudd. This fish delights in stagnant water, marshy and cattle ponds, and the flesh does not assume the taste of the water in which it lives. It lives a long time out of the water, possessing in this respect more vitality than the carp. There are two other kinds of carp, the Crucian Carp (Carassius vulgaris; German : Die Karausche; French : Le Carassin), and the Bastard Carp (Cyprinus Kollarii; German : Die Karpf Karausche; French : Le Carpe Kollar).

Frank Buckland (1880) in "Natural History of British Fishes":

GOLD-FISH.

(Cyprinus auratus.)

Local names: Golden Carp. French: Cyprin dore de la chine. German: Gold-fisch and Silver-fisch. Chinese: Kin-gso. Japanese: Kin-jun.

THIS fish originally came from some lakes near the mountains of Tchanghou-the-Kiang. It is said to have been introduced into England in 1611, in the ninth year of the reign of James I. Another story is that it was introduced from China to St. Helena, and thence brought to England in 1728, the second year of the reign of George II. I have searched in vain to find any authority for any of these statements, and should be very much obliged for the information.
I was highly amused, not very long ago, to observe that an artist had painted a scene supposed to have taken place at Pompeii, in which gold-fish were represented as swimming about in a glass globe. How could the inhabitants of Pompeii, in the year A.D. 79, have possibly known anything about China ? Gold-fish, as we all know, are now become very common, and I may say that they are the only fish that may be really called domesticated. Through ignorance I am afraid these poor gold-fish are often very cruelly treated by being put in the hot sun, or else allowed to suffer from the cold in winter, and by starvation. Gold-fish should have, if possibly, on the top of the water, a layer of duckweed, which should be frequently changed ; also a few sprigs of valesneria should be kept at the bottom by being fastened on to a stone. Do not give them bread, as it only fouls the water, but give them scalded vermicelli, and little red worms found in rain-water butts and horse-ponds.* These fish vary much in colour. When young they are black or brown ; they afterwards become gradually red, also yellow, or spotted with yellow and black, or even white.
Little or no attention has been paid to crossing fish in this country, nor have experiments been made as to the reason of the alteration of their colour. Much has been done with various coloured mice, pigeons, canaries, &c. Here, then, is a grand field open for experiments with gold-fish. Gold-fish will live and thrive very well in warm water, and would do very well in the reservoirs of. water in ordinary greenhouses and vineries.
In Land and Water, May 3, 1879, No. 693, is a most interesting and important account of two gold-fish breeding establishments in Germany and in Austria -- the one being conducted by Frei Herr Max von Washington, at Schloss Poels, near Werndorf, in Styria; and the other by Mr. C. Wagner, in the neighbourhood of Oldenburg, and 67, Leipzig Street, Berlin. At Oldenburg there are 120 ponds, covering some 7¾ acres of wet peat land, bordering on the river Hunte. Some of the water is obtained from a hemp-spinning factory. The temperature is sometimes very high, as high as 100° Farenheit. The temperature is kept up by means of steam-pipes from the factory. I commend this idea to many gentlemen who have ponds connected with factories, into which waste steam may be carried. The temperature can be kept up to a high degree by means of an inexpensive arrangement of escape pipes from the engine. The first brood of fish is obtained in March or April, and the second, or even third, between July and September. The stock consists of about 3,000 head. It is much improved by the introduction of Italian and Portuguese blood. Mr. Wagner feeds them on an insect dietary, such as blood worms, insect larvæ, and ants’ eggs, with clotted blood and barley, also finely-chopped meat, either cooked or raw. The fry born in the spring grow to the size of an inch to two or more inches by the autumn, and are then sold as globe fish. By means of judicious crossing he has obtained many varieties, such as the “telescope fish,” the “dolphin head,” the “doubletail,” and the “Narwhal.” They are transported in an oval cask with a perforated bung on the side. The cask is not filled ; the splashing of the water aërates it. They are sent long distances, such as to Denmark, Russia, Italy, England, &c. My friend Mr. Jamrach, the well-known animal dealer, of 180, St. George’s Street, E., often has large consignments of these fish, which, though small, are very handsome and good coloured.

* See also Tench.

Alwyne Wheeler (1969) in "The Fishes of the British Isles and North West Europe":

Goldfish

Carassius auratus (Linnaeus, 1758)

NAMES Goldfish: Fr. Poisson rouge; Da. Guldfisk. Prussian Carp: Ge. Giebel, Silberkarausche; Da. Damkaruds.

IDENTIFICATION Very similar and closely related to the Crucian carp, some authorities regard them as only subspecifically distinct (C. carassius auratus), but others consider that the fish native to eastern Europe (C. auratus gibelio (Bloch, 1783) - the 'Prussian Carp') is subspecifically distinct from the Asiatic goldfish (C.a. auratus). It is not possible to state with assurance to which subspecies goldfish not living in captivity in the British Isles belong, although as their origin was probably from pond or aquarium stock the Asiatic form is indicated. The 'Prussian carp' is widely kept and has been introduced to many western European localities.
The goldfish is distinguished by being slightly less deep in the body than the Crucian carp; the strong spines in the dorsal and anal fins are both deeply serrated; there are usually five rays in the anal fin; the scales are larger, numbering twenty-eight to thirty-one in the lateral line. The pharyngeal teeth are in a single row of four each side. It attains 12 in (30.5.cm) and a weight of 2 lb (907 g).
D. III-IV/15-9; A. II-III/5-6; lateral fine 28-33.
The colour is variable; in the wild the back is olive, the sides golden and the belly silvery. It has no dark spot before the tail fin. Selected colour varieties are familiar aquarium and pond fish.

BIOLOGY Like the Crucian carp, it is capable of living in small, often oxygen-deficient waters; this makes it an ideal inhabitant for many garden ponds and aquaria.
The goldfish spawns amongst water weeds, to which the eggs stick, in June or July, usually only when the water temperature exceeds 20°C (68°F). The eggs hatch in about a week. The young fish are a golden brown in colour, and do not develop their reddish coloration until aged about eighteen months; many stay dull brown.
The high temperature necessary and the lateness of successful spawning indicates that the goldfish would, except perhaps in exceptional circumstances, have difficulty in establishing itself in the wild in the British Isles. Such wild fish as are found are only recent escapes or, as in the R. Thames, are living in artificially warmed water.
The 'Prussian carp', which is native to eastern Europe, is tolerant of cooler conditions. Spawning takes place from mid-May to July. Its growth rate is faster than that of the Crucian carp, and by its fourth year it reaches a length between 5 and 7½ in (13-19 cm). This enhances its use as a commercial fish, and this form has been widely introduced for fisheries purposes in the U.S.S.R.

DISTRIBUTION
Widespread through Europe by introduction. Its natural range extended from eastern Europe to China.