Gold Fish Question

[Guest Smasha]

Hey All

My questions is my brother has 2 medium sized gold fish in his tank and all of a sudden they have started to lose their gold colour and are going white now

I first noticed it about a month or so ago i ask my brother what was wrong with his fish why are they going white?

He says he dont know and slowly they are still losing more of their gold colour.

My mum asked at the LFS and they said they had no idea either some help they are

So any ideas?

(Apart from getting rid of the Gold fish and getting some cichlids )

someone maybe able to help work out why this is happening...soon he will have two White fish not two Gold fish LOL

Thanks for any advice

[hoges]

is there any scale or fin damage???

ie. are all the scales still intact just loosing their colour?

[Guest Smasha]

Hey hoges

No no fin or scale damage at all....apart from the colour change the fish seem healthy and happy swimming round the tank

[E4G13M4N]

Goldfish can change color a few times over their life span, sometimes its a case as the fish get bigger the white area may get larger and dominate the red color..

Just the same as some black moors can change to gold color..

[Guest Smasha]

Ok cool thanks for that info E4G13M4N

I never knew that

[hoges]

yeh!!! I had a black moor about 3 years ago, who was completely black at time of purchase, 2years later he was completely orange. someone told me it was because he was kept in a pond outside, but as i have read more info on these fish I have found that its pretty common, both inside and out.

I found the process pretty cool to watch and he ended up being an extremely attractive fish, for 2 reason, 1 cos of his colouring and 2 because he was different to all my other fish.

Any chance you can post a picture, I'd love to have a peek

[Guest Smasha]

Thats so cool ive never heard of them doing that...i used to keep gold fish and black moors when i was a kid and never had that happen

As for a pic i will see what i can do...i will have to see if Panga will lend me his cam as i use his when taking photos

[Momo]

i can think of two reasons why the goldfish are losing colour.

1) they have been fed on some sort of colour enhancing food and maybe the diet has changed so they will slowly lose colour.

2) maybe the fish were grown in outside ponds, with natural sunlight goldfish colours can be truly amazing (i have a swimming pool with koi and comets). They go from dull orange when purchased to amazing deep gold/orange/red. They will lose colour over time if put indoors. so maybe when they were first purchased they were straight from a pond then over time in the aquarium and your owner ship the have slowly lost colour.

my thoughts, im guessing it has nothing to do with the health of the fish if their still active, eating and have health looking faeces.

[Momo]

i can think of two reasons why the goldfish are losing colour.

1) they have been fed on some sort of colour enhancing food and maybe the diet has changed so they will slowly lose colour.

2) maybe the fish were grown in outside ponds, with natural sunlight goldfish colours can be truly amazing (i have a swimming pool with koi and comets). They go from dull orange when purchased to amazing deep gold/orange/red. They will lose colour over time if put indoors. so maybe when they were first purchased they were straight from a pond then over time in the aquarium and your owner ship the have slowly lost colour.

my thoughts, im guessing it has nothing to do with the health of the fish if their still active, eating and have health looking faeces.

[Guest Smasha]

Hey Momo

Thanks for your imput...The fish are only fed Gold fish food and im not sure of the brand but i dont think it has any colour enhancment in it i will have to have a look.

They also get frozen blood worms...also these fish are in a tank inside and not in a pond D

I spoke with Memphis Tank and he suggested a little bit of live food in their diet might help too

So all i can do is pass all the info here you have all given me on to my brother as its his tank and fish and go from there

Thanks again everyone

[Momo]

misunderstanding, i mean maybe they were pond raised, then sold to the aquarium industry, then you.

i meant fish grown in natural sunlight have amazing colours! but they fade when kept in tanks/indoors after a while.

Sorry for being unclear but that is what i meant.

[Guest Smasha]

Sorry for being unclear but that is what i meant

Hey Momo

Thats ok no worries at all

Thanks for all your help eveyone

I'll let you know how they go

[PHL]

Thanks for your imput...The fish are only fed Gold fish food and im not sure of the brand but i dont think it has any colour enhancment in it i will have to have a look.

They also get frozen blood worms...also these fish are in a tank inside and not in a pond D

I spoke with Memphis Tank and he suggested a little bit of live food in their diet might help too

Hikari is good for colour. I'll be more cautious of live food due to risk of introducing diseases, especially if using worms.

[Guest Smasha]

Hey Poe

Thanks for the heads up...i'll be sure to keep that i mind

[lukasbobjim]

Hi, another thing is if they are put in a dark room(tank) it can take the pigment out of thier scales.

Thx Luke

[Guest Smasha]

Hey Luke

I wondered this myself as in the begining the tank light was always on

then all of a sudden the light was only getting turned on at night.

So maybe that is why...Will leaving the light on a bit longer during the day help any do you think?

Thanks for your help

Catchya Lee

[lukasbobjim]

It's good to see that appreciate good quality advice/help. I think this might help a considerable amount if they havn't completely lost their colour but it could take a long time for them to regain their colour and may possibly regain their colour but it's worth a shot.

Thx luke