Brown Oranda with Red Head

1 Breed Profile

The Brown Oranda with Red Head is a goldfish variety, a rather precious one of the Wen-jin group. Because it resembles the Purple Oranda, care is needed when buying to identify it.

Chinese name: Brown Oranda with Red Head

Also known as: Doll Goldfish

Binomial: Brown Oranda with Red Head

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Vertebrata

Subphylum: Osteichthyes

Distribution: freshwater

2 Appearance

Discovered decades ago but still hailed as the world’s rarest variety. Its form is seen in pictures; description below.

The whole body (including tail) is deep purple; the head wen is bright red, the red-purple mix beautiful. Preciously, eyes, nasal membrane, and mouth are black, like a naive doll face, hence ‘Doll Fish’; very rare and valuable. Hailed as the world’s rarest for decades.

3 Husbandry

A goldfish with goldfish habits, not hard. But rare, so be more careful.

Tolerates 0-38 C, eurythermal. Feeds at 6 C; dormant at -3 to 0 C; slows above 28 C. Optimal 18-22 C. Cannot tolerate sudden changes over 5 C, or it convulses, darts, falls ill, even dies.

4 Feeding

Not hard, but need suitable water and balanced food. How to choose good goldfish food?

Good food has a natural shrimp/fish scent; poor food has much flour and a greasy spice smell, salty like MSG. Sour/rancid is worst. Good food keeps water clear; poor food uses oil to attract.