# My fish is rapidly changing colour!!!



## charmaine (Aug 9, 2009)

Hi,

This is my 'black' ranchu.
As you can see, he is no longer black, hes going a typical goldfish colour. Its almost as if his scales are coming off. Hes not very old ( a year at the most) and he has been rapidly changing in the last 2 months (approx). He has also got a big bigger.
Does anyone know why this happens? Will he be ok?

since the black has disappeared from his face, ive noticed that he seems to have 'no eyes'.  If you can see from the pic, they are just black dots under the skin. There appears to be just a small slit which im assuming is like the eyelid part. could he be blind?? 

Apart from this, hes a very happy healthy fish. He lives with one other fish and a snail. I had to tank him out of my big tank not longer after i got him. The new fish that i put in the tank shortly, chased him around and tried to beat him up:!: Do you think that theres something wrong with him?

Thanks 
Charmaine
:fish: :fish:


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2009)

well the only reason why he is turning golden is cos he is a golden ranchu or a calico. he is under goin a morph is my opinion.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

it is quite common for carp to change colors as they mature..it may start as early as 3 months of age right up to about 2-3 years of age...they may even revert back to their original dark gray colors...all you can do is wait and see how it ends up..


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## Albino_101 (Aug 14, 2008)

Yeah my dad's green severum did this, we bought it when it was solid dark green, then it turned to a lighter shade of olive with a hint of orange and got deep dark stripes and a pretty blue hue surrounding his mouth.


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## TIFFERS (Aug 9, 2009)

I have a Black Moor Goldfish who is about 3 years old, and starting about the time he was two, he slowly lost all of his black and is now a completely orange Black Moor. I am curious if his color will come back...but, I doubt it. It would be nice though, he used to be sooo dark and pretty.


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

My Ryukin is doing the same thing, but it's the opposite, it was white and red, but now it white red and slowly turning black all over... or atleast I'm hoping he will turn black all over cause right now he's like inbetween the color change and looks really really dirty.


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## Guest (Aug 10, 2009)

what most fish stores dont tell people are that most golds start of life with a certain color but will eventually morph out to a diff color. most of the juvie golds sold here, the commons and comets, start life black/brown in color. by age of 6 months they morph! people who buy these black/brown come running back to the store screamin bloody murder.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

The pet stores require you be 18 to buy pets, but they don't tell you even close to enough information to actually be able to take care of your pets. It's like saying, "You have to be responsible for your pet, but don't ask us to be."


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## Guest (Aug 10, 2009)

yea exactly.


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

I think what surprised me is not that it color changed, but the extent of the color change that is occuring. Most fish that you stick in a tank will eventually adjust coloration to match the existing substrate slightly. Like darker substrate.. your fish get darker.. lighter means lighter fish. Pleco's are good examples of substrate adjustment.

My experience w/ goldfish are with the ping pong ball in a cup carnival kind. Those lived near 15yrs (cut down in thier prime by the Northridge Earthquake) and thems fish stayed gold thier entire lives. This is my first time with "fancy" Goldfish, just was a very unexpected developement. Interesting what happens when a species is genetically altered over the course of 1400yrs, all kinds of interesting things crop up.

Oldest known goldfish died at 43 yrs.
Oldest known koi died at 226yrs


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