Do Not Mess With Fish 107

and you though fish were fun! Nick Richards, from Camberley, Surrey, did when he went carp fishing in Poole, Dorset, he caught almost the biggest fairground goldfish on record, it weighed in at 5lbs, the semi official record is a couple of pounds heavier, but the claim is difficult to substantiate, Ruth Lockwood, from the English Carp Heritage Organisation, said "It's difficult to confirm that it is the biggest ever caught in the UK, because it is an ornamental fish and the record won't be recognised by the British Records Fish Committee"' the thought is that it was won as a prize in a local fair, but released into the wild by the owner, normally because of its bright colour predators make short work of brightly coloured fish, but just occasionally one like this one evades capture, the goldfish, known in Latin as Carassius auratus auratus, is a small member of the carp family, it was first domesticated in China more than 1,000 years ago and is commonly kept as a pet, goldfish typically grow to between two and 18 inches and have been known to live for 40 years, now how do you know it is a goldfish and not a gold coloured carp or koi carp? which grow much larger, goldfish do not have barbels in the corner of their mouths, going back to the origin of this particular fish I remember by taken around fairs in the mid 1950's spend fortunes to win a goldfish as a prize, now days of course this practice is not allowed, but at the time it was great fun.