Why are my koi turning white?

[HARO]

All I see are goldfish!
John

 

[Lisak1]

Thanks @HARO . Maybe I'm not losing it. Or at least we both are!

 

[Smaug]

I have koi with orange on them,but I'm not so sure I'm looking at koi either

 

[Mmathis]

They look like goldfish to me, too, but hard to tell.

 

[HARO]

Koi have an underslung mouth, designed to pick food off the substrate, while a goldfish's mouth is pointed forward. The second picture DEFINITELY shows goldfish!
John

 

[Evie]

This is another follow-up. This has been an excellent, super-helpful thread, thanks so much to everyone for contributing. For one thing, Lisak1 pointed out (and John agreed) that we don’t have koi in our pond, we have goldfish! We agree, our fish have no barbels, they don’t eat the plants in the pond, and none are more than 12 inches in length. Plus, of course, they are (or were) all bright orange. They be goldfish for sure.

I was asked “What kind of filtration?” and I neglected to answer: Pondmaster Model 7, a foam filter, set in a bucket on a brick in the middle of the pond. The filter gets cleaned every week during the months that the fish are fed, less often when they are not being fed.

Several contributors shared their stories of fish changing colors:


CometKeith reported that he has goldfish, one is white and started out orange with a white stripe. Another started black, then turned orange, then white. And he had black ones, some of which changed colors, some did not.

Sissy had black koi and other breeds that changed colors. She thinks the color change is related to water temperature.

Smaug has had fish turn from mostly-white to all-white, but never any koi or goldfish that turned white or lost color if they started mostly a different color. Smaug also suggested my problem might be polluted water, and that would be more likely perhaps if my pond were 200 gallons (as I incorrectly stated earlier). In fact the pond is 400 gallons.

Dave 54 suggests the color change may be related to the amount of direct sunlight hitting the pond.

Barryian has a comment I like: “Sounds completely normal.” That is the diagnosis we always want to hear! Of course, Barryian was talking about koi, and as Lisak1 and John observe, we don’t have koi at all, they are goldfish!

We don’t have control over the water temperature, although we did buy a pond heater two years ago for use in the winter. Regarding shade, the pond is under a broad Japanese Green Maple, and we have plants in the water also. We open an umbrella over the pond in the spring to hold down algae blooms.

We bought the house from someone who loved all things Japanese. The house is full of sochi screens, so I just assumed the fish were koi. I’m very happy that this misidentification has been corrected.

I have found this extremely helpful. I have had a chance to describe our pond chemistry and have it reviewed by a half-dozen experienced pond owners. I have had my misconception regarding koi vs. goldfish corrected. And no one who has contributed to this thread has suggested that the color change is the precursor to something life-threatening (or fish-threatening). -- Evie

 

[HARO]

They all look quite healthy to ME!
John

 

[Smaug]

My comets color changes quite often. Some have even regained lost color. Btw,you could still have a water quality issue whether the pond is 200 or 400 gallons,mainly your nitrates.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

My comets color changes quite often. Some have even regained lost color. Btw,you could still have a water quality issue whether the pond is 200 or 400 gallons,mainly your nitrates.

What do you classify as a dangerous Nitrate level and please present your scientific source(s) supporting this?

 

[Lisak1]

Our goldfish change colors constantly. No clue why - they are like chameleons. Especially our comet goldfish and his offspring.

It also makes more sense that your goldfish are thriving in a small pond - that many koi in that size pond would spell trouble!

 

[Smaug]

High nitrates are known to be hazardous,you have google,use it. I have experience to prove it in the form of seeing it first hand.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

High nitrates are known to be hazardous,you have google,use it. I have experience to prove it in the form of seeing it first hand.

Hardly an informative answer. 'Googling' will not produce anything but vague anecdotal claims from most sources. Scientific sources on the other hand set the toxicity level of Nitrate (as pertains to Koi) quite high (LC50 around 1000 mg/L
Effects of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate on hemoglobin content and oxygen consumption of freshwater fish, Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus)
K.S. Tilak*, K. Veeraiah and J. Milton Prema Raju)
Granted that some symptoms of toxicity may manifest at lower levels, but even these levels would be much higher than one would be expected to find in a pond or aquarium. Well before these levels are reached (if even possible), problems with algae blooms would be the main issue to be dealt with.

 

[Dave 54]

With our 29 years of experiance If Val and I had concidered things to be life threatening in your pond, I'd had said so straight away Evie then told you what actions to take if any .
What I can see in this photo is a perfectly happy fish that is part way through changing from orange to white,
Evie there are pointers to tell if a white fish is off colour that you must look out for in the future.
When a fish is stressed through say a parasite or through a disease of some sort or other, then they will what we call in the koi world pink up .
Pinking up is caused by stress and must be followed up on to make sure there arent any problems in the pond or with the ponds water ,
As such water tests must be undertaken at this time and at regular intervals.
If a fish gets overly stressed say in a plastic bag or through rough handling by its owner and or at a koi/fish dealership, then the only thing left open to the fish is to bleed through the gills which we dont want, "its another way of showing stress but is far more serious than pinking up"....
However even this bleeding can be reversed and will stop in an instant, if then removed and placed into good clean and areated water, something you may wish to remember should it happen in the future .



Dave

 

[Mmathis]

With our 29 years of experiance If Val and I had concidered things to be life threatening in your pond, I'd had said so straight away Evie then told you what actions to take if any .
What I can see in this photo is a perfectly happy fish that is part way through changing from orange to white,
Evie there are pointers to tell if a white fish is off colour that you must look out for in the future.
When a fish is stressed through say a parasite or through a disease of some sort or other, then they will what we call in the koi world pink up .
Pinking up is caused by stress and must be followed up on to make sure there arent any problems in the pond or with the ponds water ,
As such water tests must be undertaken at this time and at regular intervals.
If a fish gets overly stressed say in a plastic bag or through rough handling by its owner and or at a koi/fish dealership, then the only thing left open to the fish is to bleed through the gills which we dont want, "its another way of showing stress but is far more serious than pinking up"....
However even this bleeding can be reversed and will stop in an instant, if then removed and placed into good clean and areated water, something you may wish to remember should it happen in the future .



Dave

Good, straightforward advice!

 

[Evie]

This is a reply to Dave 54 and Val. Thanks so much for the encouraging words about our color-changing goldfish. We like to think our fish are happy. -- Evie