The thing is, this story sounds like miscommunication/misremembering all-around because male goldfish do exist, and their "reproduction" section on wikipedia do

The thing is, this story sounds like miscommunication/misremembering all-around because male goldfish do exist, and their "reproduction" section on wikipedia does not mention asexual reproduction at all[0]. Also, the wiki page on gynogenesis suggests that it specifically is a form of reproduction that still requires a male and a female, but that the male does not contribute any DNA to the offspring[1]. So male fish are required either way, although they are typically from an "adjacent" species. Searching the general internet just returns articles claiming goldfish can reproduce asexually, followed by another paragraph claiming they can't (proving to me that it's all AI generated bullshit). Not even going to link examples. Then, finally, Google Scholar points to two articles with the following titles: Genetic responses in sexual diploid and asexual triploid goldfish (Carassius auratus) introduced into a high-altitude environment and Genetic homeostasis and developmental stability in natural populations of bisexual (Carassius auratus) and unisexual (C. gibelio) goldfishes[2][3]. Reading those finally clarifies that goldfish (carassius auratus) are the diploid species that reproduces sexually, and the Prussian carp (carassius gibelio) being the adjacent triploid species that reproduces via gynogenesis, including by using sperm from goldfish. So if the question was interpreted as "could there still be male Prussian carp somewhere in the wild?" I'm guessing the answer was "no" because being a triploid that reproduces via gynogenesis seems to be a fundamental part what defines their classification as a separate species. Any hypothetical "diploid Prussian carp" would probably be labeled as different species altogether. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish#Reproduction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish#Reproduction [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynogenesis [2] https://www.techrxiv.org/doi/full/10.22541/au.166859689.91177037 https://www.techrxiv.org/doi/full/10.22541/au.166859689.9117... [3] https://link.springer.com/article/10.3103/S0095452709050077 https://link.springer.com/article/10.3103/S0095452709050077 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_carp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_carp