E G G F I S H   

Origin - China
Difficulty - Beginner (Intermediate for some variants)
Availability - Rare
Price - Cheap to Expensive
Adult Size - 5 to 7 inches
Scales - Metallic or Nacreous

History & Background

A veiltail Eggfish Known as the Maruko in Japan, this is the proto-breed of all dorsalless goldfish...the common ancestor and precursor to all the dorsalless varieties of goldfish today.

As such they are not terribly popular in the US, lacking the flashy wen, humps, bumps, eye sacs and enlarged nasal septa of the other goldfish breeds. But they are still available in the Far East, and can actually be a bit expensive due to their lack of availability, especially the Phoenix-tailed types.

If you can find them in the US at all, they will probably be expensive...$100 or more. Juvenile Lionheads are sometimes mislabelled in the US as Eggfish, but they are not real Eggfish. As they age they will develop wen. Back to Top

Special Care

The so-called "blue" eggfish is actually a shade of gray Eggfish can tolerate the same conditions as Common Goldfish, though they do not swim as well as Common Goldfish for obvious reasons. Though they are intended for Aquariums, not ponds, there is no reason to assume they could not thrive in a Pond environment so long as they had easy access to food.

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Ideal Characteristics

Eggfish have wide heads, as can be seen from this excellent orange specimen Eggfish are what the Egg-shaped body type is based on. They look like a Lionhead without the wen, or a Celestial with normal eyes, or a Bubble Eye without the eye sacs or a Pom Pom without the nasal bouquets. They have a true egg-shaped body, with a depth about 2/3 the body length.

The same standards apply to eggfish as to other Egg-bodied goldfish; the back should be a smooth arch with no bumps or spikes or any other dorsal fin residue. Ideally, the arch should peak at the very middle of the back. Unlike some other egg-shaped goldfish breeds, a shorter body is not necessarily desired for eggfish. Just short enough to give it a literal egg shape.

The fish should have no snout...just a rounded smooth contour from the back to the chest. Broad heads/mouths are also desired. Eggfish do have a full hood, but it is very subtle, as on the Pom Pom. Eggfish have no nasal flares. The wen should be thin, but cover the entire head.

Eggfish come in virtually all colors, but orange and white seem to be the most common. The so-called "blue" eggfish is actually a shade of gray.

Fins in standard Eggfish are similar to a Fantail or Lionhead...short and rounded. Eggfish have no dorsal fin. The Caudal fin should be divided and mildly forked. There are veiltailed variants that look like normal Eggfish but have Veiltail type finnage. There is also a ribbontail-like variant call the Phoenix-tail that is very highly prized. Back to Top

Known Variants

A pair of Tancho "redcap" Eggfish Phoenix Tail eggfish are identical to regular Eggfish except that they have Ribbontail-like finnage (a deeply forked Caudal fin). The "blue" version of the Phoenix-tail is probably one rarest types of goldfish in the world. Most of the breeding specimens are in Hong kong, and there are probably less than two dozen breeding pairs total in the US. Phoenix-tails dont breed well for some reason, and that probably has a lot to do with why they are so rare.

There is also a Pearscale variant that is exactly the same as a regular Eggfish but with skin like a Pearscale. Back to Top