"The Chinese lettered goldfish is covered with Chinese characters, achieved through thousands of years of crossbreeding"


Accessing an internet search engine and typing in the exact words of the node title will give you this information, present in more than ten different "trivia" sites across the net. The words and their ordering varies, but what remains constant thoughout is the name given to the fish and the fact that the result has been achieved through crossbreeding.

-Unless the ancient Chinese had nucleic plasma genetic engineering technology, this is not possible.


When discussing the goldfish, this comment was carelessly placed in the Chatterbox for anyone to pick up. Let us evaluate the evidence for and against the existence of the Chinese Lettered Goldfish.

For:

More than ten different internet trivia sites claim that it exists.

Against:

No site actually devoted to goldfish mentions these bizarre creatures. No site that sells goldfish (expensive specimens cost in excess of $400, march 2001) refers to these creatures, where they can be purchased or where they can be seen. Check out www.goldfishconnection.com for a good example of this.

No encyclopedia I have looked in (4, including Encyclopedia Brittanica mentions this strange critter anywhere. Neither does any fish book or scientific journal I could find.

Several biologist and genetic researchers I asked said that they "do not believe such a thing is possible today" and that "it was most certainly not possible previous to Mendels discoveries on heritage in breeding.

-I own one of them with Chinese cooking recipes on the side.
-Salmon?
-No, red herring.

(Mofaha, who also posted a fake picture of said fish on www.theSlink.com/fish/)