Fishes are very popular creatures in feng shui.
While the bulk of the feng shui effects come from the presence and placement of an aquarium with real water, fishes keep the water alive with yang energy.
And if a homeowner is going to set up an aquarium partly for feng shui purposes, why not have fishes that are deemed as auspicious as well.
Some of the all-time favorite feng shui fishes are arowanas, flowerhorns and koi.
But the drawback of these species of fishes is that they require more care and attention that a lot of homeowners are willing to commit to.
This is a big reason why gold fish is such a popular favorite with most households.
Goldfish which is written in mandarin as 金鱼 is pronounced as Jin Yu. This literally translates to gold and fish. The word yu also sounds the same as 餘 which means abundance.
So gold fish in Chinese basically sounds like having gold in abundance.
It’s also known as peony of the waters (水中牡丹).
Gold fish in culture
The goldfish is often confused with the colorful carp when people try to identify them in paintings and artwork.
In general, they both symbolize good fortune and confusion between them would be negligible.
However, certain paintings have specific meanings with gold fish present.
In such cases, then the presence of them are necessary.
For example, a gold fish in a pond located in the courtyard, and a well-dressed woman admiring it with two children and a maid, represents a wish to fill the whole bright hall of the house with gold in abundance.
Goldfish in a bowl symbolizes filling the house to the brim with jewels and gold.
When depicted with a lotus, it represents gold and jade coming together. The interpretation of jade comes from homonymic reasons.
Pictured with a purse, it represents having gold in abundance in a purse.
When goldfishes are put together in a pair, they can be a symbol of fertility when placement is right.
With wrong placement in the house, they can attract lovers or vice-related tendencies.
Goldfish considerations
The Chinese recognizes about 200 different breeds of goldfish.
That’s a lot of variants in the species to choose from.
There is no need to go for a particular type of gold fish.
Because being fat is often associated with being wealthy, go for the varieties with the appearance of a fat belly.
You also want to go for those that are fully gold in color. When they are not totally gold, then gold must make up the major color on it’s body.
Some of the common favorites among feng shui practitioners include the ryukin, pearlscale, wakin, fantail, etc.
Careful thought should also be put on how many gold fish to keep as pets.
- 1 is understandably connotated with loneliness
- 2 is generally good luck unless placed in the wrong location
- 3 can bring conflicts
- 4 can bring relationship luck
- 5 can bring misfortune
- 6 is neutral
- 7 can induce bad luck with injuries
- 8 symbolizes wealth
- 9 is a tribute to the full circle of life
- 10 can be kept when the residence is a sum of 10 house
By far, if the choice of how many fishes to keep is not limited to constraints of the fish tank, the most popular numbers are 8 and 9.
When wealth is the focus, then go for 8. For good luck in general is the concern, then go with 9.
When going with 9 gold fishes, some feng shui experts advocate keeping 8 in gold and 1 in black to signify the attributes of tai chi which consist of yin and yang.
In this case, the black goldfish would take on the yin characteristic to balance up the equation.
Feng shui placement of gold fish
From the fundamentals of feng shui which looks into the 8 directional sectors plus the central palace, aquariums with gold fish are best placed in the north, east and southeast.
This is because the water element (aquarium) would be energizing the water, wood and wood elements respectively.
This also implies that placements should avoid the south, southwest and northeast. The exception is when these areas have special characteristics as identified by 8 mansions or flying stars.
When placement at the south for example, causes an affliction, then your cute pet cause you more harm than good.
They can also be placed in wealth locations identified in the house.
In particular, a favorable section of the house with a favorable water star would be a very good area for placement of fish bowls.
Finally, remember to maintain the gold fish aquarium regularly to keep the waters clean.
If you are not ready to take on that commitment, then you are not ready to keep them as pets.
