Goldfish fading?

[Jinxdkarma]

Hello all!

I had a quick question and google turned up a variety of results that simply didn't answer my question.

I have 5 goldfish in my garden pond. The largest, Ferdinand was moved there well over a month ago and seems to fit in great.
My question is regarding his color. When we first acquired this house & the ponds he was orange with some white marbling color. Beautiful. I've noticed over time that his orange is fading and the white is taking over. From my examination, he doesn't appear to have any kind of fungus or white bumps or anything that would normally be a cause for concern...he's just fading! The orange is almost completely gone now and just covers a portion of the top of his little fishy body. The other fish in the pond don't appear to be fading at all but they're considerably younger & smaller.

Is this normal? I'm still new to ponds, but thru these forums and our local *fish man* I've come a long way and have been keeping the ponds clean, algae free, treated and beautiful! We did go out of town for 4 days and to my knowledge my neighbor still fed the fish for us, but I've noticed them also eating tadpoles off the sides.

Other than the color change I haven't noticed much of a difference in Ferdi's behavior. He is swimming just fine, sticks with his pack, eats well, etc.

Should I be concerned?

 

[sissy]

They change color all the time .I bought a black one because i wanted a black fis several months and he was gold and now 8 years later he is whitish pink .They say it happens when water temps change but mine seem to change weekly .I had a white one that is now orange and white and almost all my babies start out black and then change to orange and then white .No big deal he is just changing his clothes :cheerful:

 

[dieselplower]

I would not worry about the fish changing color considering everything else seems fine.

 

[Jason]

Welcome fellow Floridian, They do change a lot it seems, I had a solid Black "Goldfish" Carp a month ago, it has since changed to 100% orange in a 2 week period :goldfish: and it is only just over 2 years old and 6"

 

[crsublette]

Here's a good thread for ya to read. It is quite interesting. Color transformation in shubunkins and goldfish.

I think the natural tendency of goldfish are for them to eventually lose all color and to be a white fish. I don't know if this is due to a vitamin dificiency, as it is with particular color loss in koi. This, whether white or something else, is also probably goldfish specie dependent.

Remember, these colors in goldfish is actually the result of a mutation in the fish. So, my guess is eventually this mutation expires, whether due to a dificiency or not, and the fish has a different color as they get older.

 

[shakaho]

I had a bright red and white comet, 3 years old, turn completely white in the course of a week. I also have a shubunkin who was brightly colored during his first year, started to fade, and was completely white at 2 years of age. His sister, "Golden" was named for her color, a light orange. When about a year old, she started getting white patches, and then the gold color turned red. She's now about half each red and white, with the red in small patches. Color changes are pretty common in goldfish.

 

[shakaho]

Here is a very good article on goldfish color.