Earliest records of domestic goldfish

The domestic goldfish Carassius auratus is descended from the Prussian or gibel carp Carassius (auratus) gibelio of Asia, which in the wild state has silver scales. The earliest records of golden-scaled Prussian carp, resulting from the chance expression of a mutant gene, originate in China and date from the Jin Dynasty (AD 265-419), and it is from these freak specimens that the domestic goldfish was developed, originally in China but eventually bred worldwide. Goldfishes were first purposefully raised in captivity in China, during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), in the ponds of Buddhist monasteries; and they were first specifically bred in domestic rearing ponds during China's Nan Song Dynasty (AD 1127-1279), which is also the time when the first red-and-white goldfishes and white goldfishes appeared.