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FANCY GOLDFISH VARIETIES

Note: This website is a direct descendant of the Bristol Aquarists' Society (BAS) website, which closed in December 2024 (more info).

Featured here are the principle varieties of fancy goldfish as bred by BAS and other UK goldfish societies. Click on the image of each fish to learn more about the type.

A word about terminology! There is in fact only one goldfish species, and the many fancy goldfish varieties or breeds all belong to this same species. Within each variety, however, there may be many different strains; thus, for example, a breeder of veiltails will over time develop his/her own strain of veiltail, differing slightly in colour, finnage, body shape and genetic background from other breeders' strains of veiltail. This is clearly seen when you go to a major goldfish show and see the different strains of veiltail side by side on the show bench; but they are all veiltails compared, say, with fantails, comets or other varieties.

And a word about the abbreviations for the shows from which the photographs were taken: BAS is short for the Bristol Aquarists' Society shows, and GSGB is short for the Goldfish Society of Great Britain shows.

For background information about goldfish - their history, colour and finnage, and a glossary of terms used in describing goldfish, see Goldfish Info.

ORIGINS

All the goldfish varieties originate from China (including the ranchu and the ryukin, which many these days associate more with Japan), except for:

• Japan: the jikin and the tosakin
• USA: the veiltail and the comet, although this is not certain
• UK: the Bristol shubunkin (created by the Bristol Aquarists' society from the 1930s onwards)

VARIETIES

Type	Description	Found in
		UK	Far East	USA
Long Bodied: fish with the natural, wild-type body length
Single Tailed: fish with the natural, wild-type tail or an elongated or enlarged tail
Common Goldfish & London shubunkin	Wild-type body form and finnage, metallic or calico colouration	Common	Common	Common
Comet	Slim-bodied with long and sharply pointed finnage, colouration mostly metallic	Common	Common	Common
Bristol shubunkin	Wild-type body form with a large, heart-shaped tail, calico colouration only	Uncommon	Rare	Rare
Double Tailed: fish in which the two layers of the natural tail (which is a laminate of two layers) have divided and grow separately
Wakin	Slightly shorter body than wild-type with a double, fantail-like tail, metallic colouration only	Rare	Common	Less common
Jikin or peacock-tail	Slightly shorter body, divided tail which is splayed outwards	Rare	Uncommon	Less common
Short Bodied: shortened body length, double tail and double (divided) anal fin
Long Tailed (Veiltailed): fish with deep bodies, a high dorsal fin and a long, flowing double tail in which the fork has largely been bred out
Veiltail	Very round-bodied with a long, flowing "veil" tail, colour metallic or calico	Uncommon	Rare	Uncommon
Oranda	Basic veiltail with raspberry-like growth on the head called a hood	Less common	Far Eastern type common	Common
Redcap Oranda	White-bodied oranda with hood growth confined to a red cap on top of the head	Less common	Common	Less common
Broadtail Moor	Basic veiltail with eyes protruding from the head in a telescopic manner, colour deep velvety black	Uncommon	Far Eastern type common	Common
Globe Eye	Similar to the moor, colour metallic or calico, tail usually slightly forked	Uncommon	Far Eastern type common	Uncommon
Short Tailed (Fantailed) WITH Dorsal Fin: fish with oval (egg-shaped) bodies, short finnage and a well forked double tail held out like a fan
Fantail	Colour mainly red or calico	Less common	Far Eastern type common	Common
Pearlscale	Scales raised in the shape of pearls, body shape approaching a sphere	Less common	Common	Common
Short Tailed (Fantailed) WITHOUT Dorsal Fin: as above but with a smooth dorsal contour and no dorsal fin
Eggfish	Short, rounded fins; phoenix eggfish has long, flowing finnage	Rare	Uncommon	Rare
Lionhead	Raspberry-like hood growth on the head; mostly red or calico	Less common	Common	Less common
Ranchu	Similar to lionhead but with much more curved posterior dorsal contour	Uncommon	Common	Common
Celestial	Protruding, upturned eyes; metallic or calico	Uncommon	Less common	Uncommon
Pompon	Large, frilly nasal septa; metallic or calico	Rare	Uncommon	Uncommon
Bubble Eye	Large bubble-like eye sacs; metallic or calico	Less common	Common	Common
Other Twin Tailed: short-bodied, double-tailed types that do not fit into the above scheme (i.e. that are neither Veiltails nor Fantails)
Ryukin	Intermediate between fantail and veiltail with deep body, tail of varying length, pointed head and dorsal hump	Uncommon	Common	Common
Tosakin	Similar to fantail except for the partially divided double tail which is splayed sideways and forwards	Rare	Uncommon	Rare
Butterfly	Similar to fantail with globe eyes and a divided double tail which is splayed sideways and forwards	Uncommon	Less common	Uncommon
Oriental twintail (man-yu)	Intermediate between Fantail and Ryukin, smooth dorsal contour and fairly long, drooping, forked tail	Common	Common	Common
Experimental Varieties
Imperial	Red metallic single-tailed fish intermediate between Bristol shubunkin and veiltail in appearance	Extremely rare, limited to participating breeders in the London area	Absent	Absent

VIDEOS

The Nationwide Goldfish Societies UK has published videos of the Nationwide annual shows in 2018 and 2019, illustrating the different goldfish varieties.

OTHER VARIETIES

There are some 20 varieties of goldfish described above, with variations between the Far Eastern and the Western versions adding to the count. In fact, in China there are considered to be about 300 varieties, encompassing nearly the full range of permutations in the following features:

• head type: no hood (wild type), partial (cranial) hood, full hood
• eye type: normal (wild type), globe eye, upturned globe eye, bubble eye
• gill type: normal (wild type), outwards curling (see below)
• nasal septa: normal (wild type), enlarged and frilly
• body type: long (wild type), short and very round/deep, short and not so round/deep
• dorsal fin: normal (wild type), tall, absent
• finnage: short (wild type), long
• tail: single (wild type), double, short, long
• colour: red, orange, yellow, silver-white, brown (chocolate), black, grey (so-called 'blue'), variegated, calico, etc

You will find the main variations described on each of the individual pages accessed from the table above. To the British, many of the Chinese types are hybrid varieties, but that is just one of several valid viewpoints. There is, however, a commercial dimension to developing new varieties, and some of these, for example the black and white fish, can be spectacular; others are not to the Western taste, for example:

• the curled gill: twintail with opercula (gill plates) curling outwards and exposing the gill filaments; the curled gill is occasionally seen in other varieties (such as the oranda), where it is regarded as a fault.
• the meteor: a variety bred to have no tail, although this may be a self-perpetuating rumour; the Website Author has yet to see a photograph of such a fish that has been deliberately line bred. You will see rare developmental freaks with no tails, either in books or on the Internet, but these are not meteor goldfish.

In Britain, goldfish breeders like to maintain the recognized varieties distinct from each other, and little merit is seen in blending the different strains. Further, fish shows are competitive, and the exhibitors are very keen hobbyists; individual fish of a given variety manifesting characters that 'rightly' belong to another variety do not fare well in competition.

SPORTS

Globe eyed common goldfish

An example of a hybrid or 'sport' is this globe eyed common goldfish. The globe eye feature was first observed about 400 years ago (see History), and sometimes appears where least expected; shown below is a globe eyed young common goldfish, found amongst ordinary common goldfish that had been left to breed naturally in a pond in Exeter, Devon. (Picture by Catherine Howard, courtesy of Aquarist and Pondkeeper, 2002).

Common goldfish with double anal fin

Below is another sport seen at BAS 2004, a common goldfish with a double anal fin. (This feature was first recorded 100-200 years earlier than the globe eye). Notice also the longer tail lobes than per the standard for the common goldfish.

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