I'm assuming this is all 20/20 hindsight but once you know-the lion heads
should be very easy to identify since they are the only fancy variety with
no dorsal fin (except for the really fancy fancies).
Bill


"Bill Stock" wrote in message
t.cable.rogers.com...

"Jason Garner" wrote in message
...
In my local Fish suppliers :-

I finally brought some fish for my pond, the assistant took me over to a
huge tank of fish and asked me which ones I liked. I had a look and then
said I would like some of the multi coloured Goldfish he said they are
Shubunkins so I pointed to one that had a large stripe down its back
"I'll
have that one please" he looked at me with a totally blank look on his
face
and said "that's a Goldfish" after that I just picked ones I liked the
look
of and didn't bother to ask him what they were.


Sounds about as user friendly as the place I go to.

ME: I'd like some fish out of the tabk over there please
LFP: Fine, heres a bag, write the stock # down and bring us back the bag.

Meanwhile there's frigging numbers everywhere and they don't have a queue
in
any event. So why the hell don't you just walk over to the tank and get my
fish.

Problem is I now don't know what I have, Stripe is obviously a Goldfish
and
Vader (totally black) has a really long tail so I assume he is a
Shubunkin
as for the other five they don't really have any distinguishing features
that I can pick out apart from their different colours and they don't
really
look like either of the other two.

Last year I bought "Lionheads" from Walmart at $4.00 a shot. They all
turned
out to be common Goldfish, except for one that has a split tail. This
group
bred and two survived, Mutts all.

This year I bought some feeders from said LFP, I think they might be
Comets.
Their fins turned black after a couple of weeks in the pond. So I think
the
LFP had too much Ammonia in their tank.


Bearing in mind that as soon as I get near the pond they all dive under
the
pump to hide from me is there any way I can tell what types of fish I
have
from say 4-5 foot away please?

I looked at pictures in books but didn't find that any help.

Many Thanks,
Jay