Gold fish fry and their colors -- a transparent Shubunkin?

[Mmathis]

Well, drained the pond over the w/end -- have some pond maintenance to take care of. Moved the pond goldies to a holding tank, and in the process, rescued as many more of the babies as I could of the ones still in the pond. If there were any that even remotely looked "shubie-ish" or had a fan tail, those went into the inside tanks. The rest get to live with Mom & Dad, aunts & uncles.

So, I've ended up with about 8 or 9 that are potential Shubies, and one that looks like it will be a Wakin. I am starting to see some color starting to pop up on a few. One has an orange dot on its head, and about 3 of them have tails that are darkening. There's one that almost seems to have a dark streak along its back.

Sadly, after I emptied the pond, I found 2 little Shubie babies that got missed, and both of them were very colorful -- same size as the ones indoors. So now I'm wondering if sunlight plays at all in the development of their colors?!?! Hmmm.....

 

[bettasngoldfish]

TM, If you don't mind me asking.....What type of maintenance are you doing that requires you to empty your pond? You have a larger pond don't you?

 

[Mmathis]

TM, If you don't mind me asking.....What type of maintenance are you doing that requires you to empty your pond? You have a larger pond don't you?

Pond is roughly 3000-3200 gals.

I did some work during the winter when I converted part of the pond that used to be connected to my box turtle habitat. Basically, I reclaimed ALL of the pond for the fish and gave the turtles their own separate bog area. A good deal of this renovation was to deepen the part that used to be for the turtles. Well, in the process of the renovation, I had to lower the water level, and when I did that, after a few days, a section on the opposite side collapsed because there was no water pressing against the liner. We have clay soil and a very high water table, and we'd been having tons of rain.

When I did the winter work (we had some wonderful spring-like weather), I was able to pull the liner toward the center of the pond and support it there, which gave me free access to the parts that needed work. It was a mess, but OK for winter as the fish weren't active. But now, to fix the other part, I want to do it without any fish and to have the freedom of NOT having to worry about hurting the liner!

Long explanation -- hope it made sense.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Sounds like a lot of work but I'm sure it will be worth it

 

[jmajid]

we had one that looked like the one in JB's photo...
it died a couple of days ago - it was almost an inch long and was always a little more sluggish than the other one we found in the pond that was more aggressive about food... and that other one GREW!
The parents were likely goldfish with possibly shubunkin....

 

[Mmathis]

we had one that looked like the one in JB's photo...
it died a couple of days ago - it was almost an inch long and was always a little more sluggish than the other one we found in the pond that was more aggressive about food... and that other one GREW!
The parents were likely goldfish with possibly shubunkin....

Ahhh, sorry to hear that

_________________

I tried to get some iPad pictures -- they are terrible quality, plus I had just been messing around in the tanks, so the water was still cloudy. There was one more little guy who stayed shy and wouldn't come out for a pic -- he actually has more black starting to pop out, as well as a few spots of orange. Threw in a shot of one of the comet babies as a comparison.

These 3 pics are different views of the same fish.

In this shot (these are all Shubies, and are in a separate tank), there is a mirror image where they were next to the side. Poor quality, but you could really see all the internal parts, including what I guess is the swim bladder. They don't have any "color" yet, except the smaller one I've circled -- he has a yellow forehead (which, of course, you can't tell in the pic, so take my word for it....).

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Little babies, so cute!

 

[Mmathis]

Little babies, so cute!

My hubby thinks I'm crazy, but I love to just sit and watch them -- especially when they go after the baby brine shrimp! So cute is right

 

[dieselplower]

I did not read all the posts but can say that I have had a lot of clear fish and they did not remain clear.

 

[Mmathis]

I did not read all the posts but can say that I have had a lot of clear fish and they did not remain clear.

What did they turn into? I'm guessing (hoping) that these guys are Shubunkins.

 

[Mmathis]

This is the little guy I was trying to photograph yesterday...

This is him with some fish that haven't "colored" yet [lower left]. The one right above him is "normal."

Time will tell, but I am enjoying watching them day-to-day! [And of course, hoping for Shubies!]

 

[addy1]

look here TM http://www.ozarkkoi.com/Goldfish/Sunrise-Shubunkins-p-257.html I bought some of these, love the way they look

 

[Mmathis]

The babies are growing and some of them, the largest, are developing a little more color. The largest is probably right at & sl. over 1/2", but not at the 1" mark yet. No pics right now, though, but will be moving them soon to their transition nursery tank outside -- will try for pics then.

Mostly what I'm seeing is some darkening in the fins & tail on some (either solid or mottled), and the yellow, yellow-orange colors are starting to become more obvious. One or two have some (though not much) darker pigmentation on the body. But for the most part, there is still a lot of that clearish-color (not a color, but didn't know what to call it).

Does anyone know if Shubies continue to change colors as they get older?

And what makes a Shubunkin be a Shubunkin? Is it a certain set of colors? Or is it the type of scales? Or a combo of both?

 

[Mmathis]

Here are some pics of the more colorful babies. Since these were iPhone shots [and the fish were sorta not holding still for the shoot], quality is the pits. I DID enhance the colored areas just a tad in order to show the colors.

And this is a pic of the one Shubie that was spawned last year. It's one of the 2 that I kept inside through the winter -- so I could observe it. This one stayed "white," but developed speckles. If I recall, the speckles were larger when it was a fry, so don't know if some of the black coloration went away, or the speckles failed to grow with the fish. Still a very pretty little fish!

 

[Mmathis]

Wow, it's been almost a month, and boy are these little guys changing!

I have moved all of them (maybe 20, give or take) to the outdoor 50 gallon tote, and except for the fact that I can't see them like I could when they were in the aquarium, they are growing like weeds. I miss that side-view, plus now in the tote, they are more fearful so are harder to spot.

The Shubunkin babies are starting to color up, and there is one that looks like it has purple along its back. There are all shades of orange & yellow showing up, from a rosy-orange to an almost lemon yellow. But mostly they've still got that white or colorless look with patches of color and black spots. Can't wait to see them when they reach their final colors!

Oh, and I'm almost certain that about 1/3 of the Shubes are "nymphs" judging from top-view body shape. Those guys (single tails) look like eggs with a tail stuck on -- very different from the others.

Pics will have to wait until I can get them where I can take a pic.