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THE LIONHEAD
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| Goldfish Forum/ Messageboard > Goldfish Breeding > Goldfish Of The Month September: |
| Posted by: Ranchugirl Sep 7 2004, 07:48 PM |
Goldfish of the month September: The Lionhead
This month's fish will be the lionhead, one of the most popular goldfish breeds all around the world. And that comes as no surprise, looking at that face that can be compared to a little puppy dog.
History
The lionhead is one of the earlier developed goldfish, with his closest ancestors being the eggfish. After the Chinese made their goldfish breeding efforts more known around the asian world in the 16. century, and Japan started breeding as well, more and more different breeds showed up, with the lionhead being in that very early group, and it can be said proudly that the lionhead is the reason we have orandas today as well. The Mandarins in China had taken possession of the goldfish production and were in a feisty rivalry war who can develop the most fancy goldfish to please the emporer.
In China the lionhead has been named Shou-xing, after their God of Longevity Shou-xing Gong, and with the fish's fat belly also has a slight assemblance to the laughing buddha.
Features
The most dominant feature of this breed most definetely is the extremely well developed headgrowth or wen on the lionhead. That headgrowth can be quite huge, and sometimes even bothersome, to the lionhead, especially when it starts growing over the gill cover and hinders the fishes ability to breathe.
Other external features are the fat round belly, with the body depth ideally being greater than 1/2 to 5/8 than the length. His back is smooth, with no dorsal fin, and evenly arched in a slight, not too dominant curve. The caudal fin is double, with no webbing of the individual lobes. The lionhead has a matching pair of anal, pectoral and pelvic fins, with nicely rounded out lobes.
To the untrained eye, the lionhead can easily be mistaken for another goldfish breed, the ranchu, which will be featured in another article later this year.
Varieties and colors
You wouldn't think that there are more varieties of the lionhead, but yes, there are. Not all that many, but they are out there. Some of almost no headgrowth, while others have a very hard time seing out their eyes with the headgrowth covering most of it. And then we have the longfinned variety, which is rather uncommon, but very beautiful and graceous, not to mention one of my personal favorites.
As for colors, there are plenty to go around for everybody: in the metallic-scale variety we have orange, red, black, even chocolate and blues lately. For the nacreous types there is bi-color (red-white, red-black), tri-color (red-white-black) and calico. And there is even a red cap lionhead, with a bright red headgrowth and the rest of his body being white. Finding an all white lionhead is somewhat of a challenge, since in chinese culture the color white is seen as the color of death and mourning, so most all white fish are being culled out.
Housing and food
The lionhead can be put into the group of the bigger breed of goldfish, with a length of 10 inches and bigger not uncommon, which means, that little fella needs space. 10gl should really be the minimum for a small fish, 15-20 gl he will enjoy so much more and grow to his full potential, which is very impressive in a big sized goldfish. He is a rather peaceful and docile fish, and does well with other goldfish breeds. When the headgrowth starts covering the eyes though, some consideration is needed when it comes to his feeding, since it is harder for him to see his food at this stage.
He is an excellent pond fish, if kept with other slower moving goldfish. Koi, comets and shubunkin are definetely not his favorite choice of pond mates. And considering how cold it gets in your climate, bringing him in for the winter is essential.
Food? Him being a goldfish, that part should be easy - almost an
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| Posted by: Lor Sep 7 2004, 08:08 PM |
| yay... lionheads. i just love the puppy face. nice pics too Andrea |
| Posted by: jacky_ckw Sep 9 2004, 09:05 AM |
oh yes, puppy face is cute!  |
| Posted by: Devs Sep 9 2004, 10:32 AM |
 I don't know,for some reason I always look forward to reading your goldfish of the month.It's not only informative-it always puts a smile on my face as I think about a future purchase......  Way to go Andrea-you always write them up so well!  |
| Posted by: Ranchugirl Sep 9 2004, 08:03 PM |
Well, does that mean I am seing some other lionhead pictures here?  |
| Posted by: LaurieP Sep 9 2004, 08:47 PM |
Andrea,
Very nice article. You do such a nice job.
I especially love that pic. at the top, and the other fish (Ryukin?) he is gorgeous.
As for the lionhead, I had the ugliest one years ago. He was see thru white and pink, he looked so unhealthy. No head growth and his fins was deformed, but I will tell you I loved that little fish. He taught me so much. Thru him I realized that fish can feel just like us and have emotions. I saved him from a life of a one gal tank he had been in for 4 years. I will never forget him, and even though he was nothing to look at, he was the most beautiful fish I ever had.
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| Posted by: bodoba Sep 10 2004, 08:42 AM |
LaurieP that was such a sad story!  I'm so glad that you could save that Lionhead! What was his name?
Andrea that's an awesome report (?) on Lionheads, super informative and it's true, no one can hate that little puppy look that they give you.  *sigh* (one can only dream)
Robyn |
| Posted by: LaurieP Sep 10 2004, 09:26 AM |
Bodoba,
Sorry to say that little lionhead didn't have a name (I was 20ish and young, I didn't name most my fish at that time).
He belonged to a little neighbor girl, who kept him and a 2 inch Angel fish in a 1 gal tank for 4 years. I convinced her to give me the Angel (i kept them at the time). A year later she was done with taking care of the lionhead and was going to flush him, so I took him.
It was the coolest thing to see the 2 reunited. They recognized each other immediatly and showed it. As I floated the lionhead in the tank the Angel went nuts. Once I let him out they swam together, actually playing and touching one another. They slept together (in the same postions as they did in the 1 gal.). For the next 2 years they were inseperable. The Angel died first and 2 months later he did. I firmly believe he died of a broken heart. Nothing was wrong in the tank and the water was good. I think he couldn't stand being without her again.
I would never have believed this story had I not lived it. It put a new perspective on fish for me. |
| Posted by: Devs Sep 10 2004, 09:54 AM |
 How bittersweet....... I'm glad that they spent their last moments together-poor things! |
| Posted by: LaurieP Sep 10 2004, 10:05 AM |
Yes, I felt bad because I didn't want the lionhead, but after I seen them back together, I was so pleased to have reunited them.
Just goes to show, sometimes those "ugly rescues" are the best fish.
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| Posted by: LabFish Sep 10 2004, 05:34 PM |
| They are like the humpbacks of the fish world |
| Posted by: jacky_ckw Sep 10 2004, 10:45 PM |
"humpbacks of the fish world"
ya, my thoughts too  |
| Posted by: Lor Sep 11 2004, 03:51 PM |
here's my lionhead pic....
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| Posted by: Lor Sep 11 2004, 03:52 PM |
| sorry it's too big |
| Posted by: Ranchugirl Sep 11 2004, 05:42 PM |
| Not to worry, Lor, they are cuties!! |
| Posted by: Lor Sep 11 2004, 06:18 PM |
| Thanks Andrea |
| Posted by: Tanya_woz_ere Sep 12 2004, 03:12 AM |
Nice info.. i love the last pic in your info andrea, is that cutie yours?  |
| Posted by: Ranchugirl Sep 12 2004, 08:25 AM |
Yeah, he is, or rather was. He suddenly disappeared from his pond in a screened in area. Found a hole in the screen, and who-knows-what might have gotten him..... |
| Posted by: Lor Sep 12 2004, 08:56 AM |
maybe a cat scrached a hole in the screen and took him  |
| Posted by: Tanya_woz_ere Sep 12 2004, 10:57 AM |
| owww Andrea, im so sorry thats such a shame Do you have any more lionheads? Is the one in the first pic yours aswell? |
| Posted by: Ranchugirl Sep 12 2004, 03:53 PM |
Yeah, Tanya, they are all mine. I have two more, one is a little baby from Walmart, the other one is in my ranchu tub....
The big baby all the way on top of the breeding section, her name is Precious, and must be around 7 years by now. I got her from a friend 3 years ago, and he had her for about the same time, plus he never buys small fish, so she was fully grown when he bought her.... |
| Posted by: bagoegg Sep 16 2004, 10:08 PM |
| I think the best things about Lionheads are their personalities. The 3 I have act like they dont have a care in the world. The just swim and ram into whatever fish gets in their way. They act like the big dumb football player that everybody likes!! They are fantastic!!! |
| Posted by: Ranchugirl Sep 20 2004, 10:08 AM |
| Bagoegg, if you have any pics of them, feel free to post them here.... |
| Posted by: I_love_Ranchu_goldfish Sep 27 2004, 03:36 PM |
| thanks for the great information,this is once of my other favorite fish. |
| Posted by: moonerbell Oct 3 2004, 10:43 PM |
here's my lionhead, Dela (pronounced day-la)....this is the cutest picture of him! I love how hes looking straight at the camera...hehehe.
I know this bowl is small, but he has since moved into a 5 1/2 gallon regular tank.
Dela |
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