RED ORANDAS

Here are some images of British-bred orandas; the breeders of these fish aim to achieve the Nationwide Goldfish Standard for the fish, developing a deeper body and the veiltail-style finnage. The majority of orandas in UK are imports from the far east, with excellent hoods, shallower bodies, shorter and rounded paired fins and a deeply forked tail.

Adult fish

red oranda goldfish red oranda goldfish
red oranda goldfish

Red orandas shown at BAS 2011 (top two fish) and GSGB 2011 (bottom - overhead view). The fish at top-left, photographed in strong sunlight, has a beautiful, deep red colour, with the colour extending throughout the fins to the extremities; this is a true 'self-red' fish. The fish at top-right has a silver-white underside and white edges to the fins (except the pectorals), making this more of a red-white variegated fish, although there is no silver-white colour on the flanks.

red oranda goldfish red oranda goldfish

Red oranda shown at BAS 2007. This fish has finnage that is close to the standard, with long, pointed paired fins and a tall, straight dorsal fin, and with most of the fork bred out of the tail fin. The finnage, although superb, is a little too large in relation to the body size.The hood growth could be larger, as is common in western strains of oranda; there seems to be a trade-off between hood and finnage development, in that breeding for western finnage (to meet the standard) often results in reduced hood growth.

red oranda red oranda
red oranda red oranda

Red orandas shown at BAS 2006 (top) and 2004 (bottom): the top fish is closer to the standard, possessing the longer, more veiltail-like finnage; the bottom fish are nonetheless well developed towards the Western standard, with a deeper body and a fuller, deeper (less forked) tail compared with oriental fish, although the paired fins are short and rounded.

red oranda red oranda
red oranda red oranda

The top fish is a fine adult oranda with some loss of colour towards the ends of the fins and a natural jagged training edge to the paired fins (except for the pectorals), which should ideally have a straight edge. Note the deeper body, the less forked tail and the longer fins in the bottom two fish which are closer to the British standard. Shown at BAS 2002.

red oranda 2014

Fine, adult oranda shown at the British Nationwide Show 2014.

red oranda young red oranda

Left: Red oranda in a tank belonging to the website author, 2007. This is a superb oranda in all respects except for the hood growth, which ideally should be fuller. Notice the deep tail in which almost all traces of a fork have been bred out, and the tall, straight dorsal fin with no curling over to one side at the top. (Purchased from one of BAS's leading breeders).

Right: Young red oranda, well proportioned, with a slightly pale red colour and lacking colour in the paired fin extremities, which is extremely common in twintail fish. Shown at BAS 2001.

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