Did You Know that Baby Goldfish Are Almost Black When They Hatch?

When goldfish hatch from their eggs they're a dark color, almost black. As they grow bigger, most of them turn an orange color. Some, though, turn white instead of orange as they grow bigger. Goldfish were first bred in ancient China as decorative fish. They were produced through selective breeding of a particular variety of roach that displayed orange coloring. Today some commercially bred goldfish still owe their origin directly to that fish, while some others are the result of cross-breeding. The beautiful nishiki carp was bred in Japan. A fish called a crucian carp is the ancestor of the goldfish. The goldfish came from a relative of the crucian that had an orange color.