why do we have to import goldfish? because we can breed by ourself and have some breeders here. we can buy it from them or we don't have enough breeders in US. How many people here ever bought from american breeders not from imported goldfish?

There are a fair amount of breeders in the US - and the surrounding areas. The fish, by and large though, cannot match many of the fish that are coming out of Thailand and those surrounding areas. The culturing of the fish is something we have not managed to match, yet. The temperatures, mud, water, food, sun, etc. are hard factors to quantify and copy - and so far they have not be sufficiantly quantified to allow the fish production to match or meet the same standards.

The quality of the fish bred in the US is getting better - but still has a LONG way to go to match that which can be purchased overseas. Because of incurable diseases, though, importation is getting more expensive and more difficult. This is putting the pressure on the western breeders to produce the quality fish that the market demands. Hopefully, this will be possible. Koi have dramatically increased in both numbers and quality over the past 10 years alone - and I suspect the goldfish will also.

Thanks dary. you gave me clear explanation. I don't know breeders in US can meet quality standard or not because I have never seen the fishes that they bred. I only saw imported fishes in US. someone has goldfish picture that is born there? Thanks

This is my low quality Ryukin, Kimi. The place she was rescued from bought her from a fish hatchery in South Carolina USA

I'm not trying to hijack your thread but can someone explain or point me in the correct direction to what defines a "High Quality" Fish? Other then the obvious signs of good health there would be Genetic testing. Everything else, IMHO, seems more a personal perspective to me.

What we should do is get away from breeding. Just take the genetic code of the "Perfect" fish and clone them. Maybe I just dont get it.

One and only reason why US (and any other western countries) will never match the quality and quantity of Asian breeders:

Labour cost

A "High Quality" goldfish is a goldfish of a certain breed that conforms to the ideal standard of that breed set by respective countries' goldfish associations, or conforms to the standard dictated by a culture or word of mouth through generations.

So say, the Oranda's ideal conformation is what's written below:


so any Orandas that conform closely to the standard above is deemed to be a "High Quality" Oranda.


If your personal criteria of a "High Quality" fish is just "Good Health", then that's your choice and no one can criticize you for that.

A high quality fish is one that correctly forms to it's breed standard. Kimi dose not correctly conform to the breed standard for ryukin which is what breed she is. Therefore she is considered low quality. But kimi like so many other fish (I think anyway) is very lovely despite the low quality label.