Black Moor

This article is about the kind of goldfish. For a term sometimes used to describe Black Africans, see Moors.

Black moor goldfish
Country of origin
China[1][2]
Type
Veiltailed
Breed standards
BAS

The black moor is a telescope-eyed variety of fancy goldfish that has a characteristic pair of protruding eyes. It is also referred to as popeye, telescope, kuro demekin in Japan and dragon-eye in China.^[3]

Description

A partially gold Blackmoor

Black Moors (Carassius auratus) have deep bodies and long, flowing finnage, along with characteristic protruding eyes. ^[3] They are veiltailed and possess metallic scales with a velvet-like appearance.^[4]

Young Moors resemble bronze fantails. Their black coloration and eye protrusion develop with age .^[4] They can grow up to a length of 10 inches, but may not lose their velvet-like appearance with increasing age (life span: 6 to 25 years). Black demekins may also revert to metallic orange when exposed to warm water temperature.^[3][4] The fish can range in coloring anywhere from a lighter grey to a dark black, but most Black Moor goldfish don't stay pure black forever and many of them change colors from a rust color underbelly to orange splotches. Although their eyes are usually large, their vision is poor.

Black moor goldfish are popular because they are hardy fish and because their black color sets them apart from the more common gold color. Goldfish are typically easy to care for. Black moors in particular are able to withstand a wide variety of temperatures. They are good with other fish, although do not get along with male Siamese Fighting Fish because of their size.

Variants

Related fish include the entire "telescope" family, and can appear in red, red-and-white, calico, black-and-white, chocolate, brown, blue, bronze, lavender and chocolate-and-blue, tricolored, and black coloration. Black moors with a deep solid black color are difficult to find but are more stable in moors than any other goldfish variety.^[3] Black-and-white moors are known as panda moors.^[5]

It was once theorised that blackness in goldfish are only exhibited by the telescope-eyed goldfish and that the black color is only a permanent fixture with telescope eye goldfish. However, with the recent entry of black lionheads (ranchus), black orandas, black pearlscales and black hibunas, this view is no longer true.

In fact, black moors do sometimes throw normal-eye offsprings, and they are black also. However, they are rejected as they do not conform to the telescope eye feature for the Moor variety.

A Black Moor's protruding eyes are particularly delicate.

In 1941, Moscow aquarist P. Andrianov, bred a kind of black telescope with a ruby-red eyes.

In addition to "moors" there are black Demekins. Moors are more torpedo shaped and have long flowing anal, pectoral and tail finnage. Black demekins have shorter fins and deep bodies top to bottom. Here is summary. http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/moor-vs-demikin.html

References

1. ^ Ostrow, Marshall E. (2003). Goldfish. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's. pp. 47. ISBN 9780764119866. http://books.google.com/books?id=0m0B6VCMirQC. 
2. ^ Matsui, Yoshiichi; Betts, L.C. (1981). Goldfish guide (2nd ed.). Neptune, NJ: T.F.H. Publications. p. 51. ISBN 9780876665459. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vxc7AQAAIAAJ&q=Ryukin+origin. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Johnson DVM, Hess RE "Fancy Goldfish: A Complete Guide to Care and Collecting", Weather hill, Shambala Publications, Inc., 2006, ISBN 0-8348-0448-4
4. ^ ^{a b c} Andrews C "An Interpet Guide to Fancy Goldfish", Interpet Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-902389-64-6
5. ^ Black and White Pandas, Bristol Aquarists' Society, Bristol-Aquarists.org, 2006, retrieved on: 04 June 2007.

See also

• Panda moor
• Telescope eye
• List of freshwater aquarium fish species