there are soo many of them as pets.. are they even wild anymore.. were they ever?!
Answers:
Unfortunately there is no such thing as a wild goldfish. Goldfish are actually mutants created by human (who breed them for different mutated traits). The original so call goldfish is a greenish yellowish carp like fish :) The modern goldfish is totally different from what it's ancestors looks like :)
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yes...they are called carp...I kid you not. Carp are a type of goldfish.
don't think they ever were in the wild but they originated from china
heres some info
http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/2001/ar...
hope that helps
Rae
They are related to the carp that people call "junk fish" when they catch them in lakes. They get pretty big and ugly.
http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/ima...
sure...they make really good bait
Goldfish originated in Eastern Asia - China.
For years they were only owned by Royalty.
They are a form of Carp.
And yes, there are still wild forms of Goldfish/Carp. Like the Asian Carp.
And don't forget that a lot of people released their Goldfish back into the wild when they couldn't care for them anymore.
After a few generations Goldfish revert back to their original coloration - a kind of Greenish Brown - difficult to see in the water.
Right now they're in most American Lakes and Rivers.
Now the Asian Carp - that's a BIG Problem. Fish Farms in the Southern States of America used it on their farms to clean up their ponds. Then that area of the country had big floods and the Asian Carps got loose into the Mississippi River Basin.
Asian Carp are more of a Cold water fish, so they've been heading north - FAST. And they grow big fast. In just the last ten years or so they spread up the Missouri and Illinois Rivers and are threatening to enter the Great Lakes.
Right now the only defense keeping them out of the Great Lakes is an Electric Fence stretching across a river. If they do enter the Great Lakes, they'll spread through them and up and into Canada.
This fish is bad news - an environmental disaster - it eats everything and grows to big - big sizes.
If you go to YOUTUBE.COM - do a search on Asian Carp and you'll see some clips on these fish jumping out of the water - you'll see how "infested" the rivers are. There are some awesome videos there - really awesome - and frightening.
So - yes, Goldfish were wild, are wild and still are will. They are a type of CARP.
Do you know what KOI are? It's another Pond fish - they're also a form of CARP.
Ken - (who was awestruck by the asian carp videos)
Oh yes the Chinese long ago noticed some of the carp had gold patches so they began to capture and breed them to get them a solid orange color, then other colors began to appear and hence the domestic goldfish. Many breeds were bred long ago and some are still being made today. New breeds surface every year, mostly from the Tung Hoi Aquarium and breeder Jackie Chan (not the Martial Arts guy). All the strange modifications came from selective breeding the wild version of carp. In America we have carp and buffalo fish which are related to koi. The smaller carp with out barbels are related to goldfish. Simular fish exist around the world.
