Gold, this precious metal due to its scarcity and the difficulty of refining, so that their price has been high, in ancient times gold is an important circulating currency, even in modern times they still have monetary properties and investment value.
But you know what? There is such a magical animal in nature, they look golden, it is like a walking gold mine! Some people even had the idea of refining gold after seeing their appearance, and there were rumors that someone had really succeeded in extracting gold from the inside of these golden animals! This has also led to many people dreaming of catching this kind of animal, and the price on the market has begun to soar, and the price of a golden animal has even sold to tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands! So what exactly are they? Does the body really contain gold?
The first is a fish native to the Amazon River in South America and the Xingu River in Brazil. Because this fish is golden throughout and looks like a piece of gold, its scientific name is golden fish. This fish belongs to the catfish family catfish and is closely related to the catfish commonly found in life. Adults are about 25 cm long and have a suction cup-shaped mouth, which is an omnivorous fish, usually feeding on small plankton and algae in the water. At first, this fish was local, just a common edible fish, and most of the golden fish will have a more or less variegated color. Therefore, it is almost impossible to encounter a gold fish with pure gold in the wild.
Since then, because this fish is relatively simple to raise, only the water temperature needs to be guaranteed at 25-27 degrees Celsius, and the water quality pH value reaches between 6-7. Therefore, more and more people are starting to raise golden fish as ornamental fish. With the continuous improvement of the status of goldfish in ornamental fish, the price of solid color gold fish has also begun to soar, according to the difference in color and body shape, the selling price of a high-quality gold fish ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
The most expensive gold fish in China at present is a "24k pure gold gold fish" welcomed at the Guangzhou Aquarium on September 26, 2006. It is reported that this fish was introduced from the Amazon River in South America, because the color of this yellow fish is very rare and beautiful, so at that time, the value of this golden fish even exceeded one million! And this fish also has a well-known name "24k gold dharma".
In the face of such an expensive gold fish, even if it does not have gold in its body, it is already better than a pure gold fish. Therefore, at that time, when the news spread, people flocked to the aquarium and expressed their desire to witness this million-dollar gold fish, which really caused quite a stir at the time, and it is no wonder that some people say that if they catch one, they can eat and drink without worry! Therefore, the value of gold fish is more due to the scarcity of their pure gold, rather than the fact that the body actually contains gold.
The second golden animal is a relatively common small beetle, its scientific name is the golden turtle beetle. This beetle is small and is currently one of the smallest and most fascinating transparent creatures known in the world. Adult beetles are only about 6 mm long and look similar to ladybirds, but the edges of their carapace are transparent. Because they often store water droplets under the outer stratum corneum, they produce a shining color when refracted by sunlight, and usually look golden or orange-yellow on their backs, looking like a small golden turtle from a distance. In Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, China, whenever the rice is ripe, this golden beetle will be very common, and people in the local area will call it "scarab beetle".
So does the Golden Tortoise Beetle contain gold in its body?
This rumor was first caused by the golden beetle's golden body and the fact that the golden beetle secreted a golden acidic liquid, like gold powder. Therefore, some people believe that the golden beetle contains gold in the body. In fact, this acidic liquid does not contain any gold components, it is just a liquid used to drive birds away and prevent them from being caught by predators.
And their bodies do not contain any gold components, and the appearance of gold is more derived from the reflection of sunlight. Therefore, the rumor that they can extract gold from their bodies is obviously just a rumor. After all, as a scarce metal, most of gold is concentrated deep underground, and it is theoretically impossible to enrich it into ordinary animals.