Black Moor Goldfish and its normal eyed variants

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The Black Moor Goldfish

The Black Moor (Demekin) goldfish is a telescope eye goldfish which is known best for its velvety black colour in good specimens. Telescope eye is a recessive genetic trait, ie, crossing a telescope eye goldfish with a normal eyed fish will result in 100% normal eyes. However, crossing the offspings of such crosses will result in one quarter telescope eyes, a simple Mendelian genetics model at work.

It was once beleived that black can only be exhibited in the telescope eyes (see Matsui's The Goldfish Guide). However, since the arrivals of black orandas, black ranchu lionheads and black bubble eyes, which are normal eyed, the supremacy of black colour strictly within the domains of telescope eye goldfish no longer holds true.

Black single tail goldfish

However, black metallic single tail goldfish is still non-existent. I do not mean the black hybrid carp with triangular tail fins. See:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3300/3275379548_afddbff97e.jpg

or the jet black shubunkins coming out of China.

Do Black Moors with normal eyes exist?

Yes, I had two normal eyed Black Moor (both four-lobed fantails) in the 1990s, they were good jet black specimens of Moors with normal eyes. They are like the black fantail shown in the link below(except the pupils of the eyes are slightly larger than normal, ie, a trait of their Moor telescope heritage and they are Black Moors shaped. You know what I mean when you've observed enough Black Moors, they have their 'own' features and shapes):

http://www.goldfishkeepers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36

Fish farmers reject any normal eyed Black Moors as inferior, as Black Moors should have both eye protuding from their eye sockets, any single eye protusion or non-protusion is discarded.

Unfortunately, the 1990s were days without digital cameras, my two normal eyed Black Moors died without me having photos taken of them.

My current normal eyed Black Moors

These two juvenile Black Moors are normal eyed, and their black colours are still developing, ie, not velvety jet black but a brownish black instead. Hopefully they will darken over time as they grow, they are still young.

The first specimen is a fish with a three-lobed caudal fin, and it is also born without anal fins. The second is a single-tailed nymph. Both are normal eyed. These photos were taken on 6 May 2009. A third nymph specimen (not photographed), has slight part-protusion on rear part of the eye, so exhibits the telescope eye heritage, it also is not jet black but brownish black.

Time will tell as to how these three goldfish will develop over time. From them as a start, hopefully a black comet/common goldfish will appear in time.






© Bill L 24 May 2009