Winter Color Change?

[GreatDanesDad]

Hey guys,

I am in Phoenix and it is getting cooler here. And by cooler I dont mean cold. My pond was at around 95 deg all summer but now that it has cooled off it is down to around 60 deg.

When the water first cooled down the fish kind of went in to a slow hibernation mode. They went under the shelf in the pond and dissapeared and really werent intersted in food much. Now a few weeks later, they seem to realize the world isn't going to end and have found a re-newed interest in food. This I am very happy about it is like my friends are back! I was sad thinking they might not be around all winter.

So here is the question, was it the temperature change the caused them to go into a "hibernate" mode. Or did they get sick? I check my water every saturday morning and most everything is around 0. Surely nothing high enough for me to think twice about. The algae in the pond has almost dissapeared, however my bog is growing great. The PH did kind of go crazy when the algae started to disapate, but with a little help is now between 8.0 and 8.5 depending on when I test. This is a smaller "delta" in my PH than I had all summer.

So with all that information, I am concerned because about 3 of my 12" long fish have seemed to lost their color. They were white with yellow patches, white with bright orange patches, and a solid light yellow. All three of these fish now look almost platinum. They look healthy with good slime coats, but you can hardly see any of their origional color. I know fish change color, but these guys changed in a months time. They were born in may. So they arent even 10 months old yet.

Should I be worried? Are you worried?

 

[sissy]

That was a big change for them so could have been the change mine slow down around 55 degree water temp and my water in the summer with shade sail up does not get above 80 very often But your ground probably get hotter since your summers are longer and you get warmer weather .I measure both top temps and bottom temps of water and there is usually a 5 to 10 degree difference from top to bottom and my pump is mid way down and pond is just over 4 ft deep .

 

[HARO]

I got a beautiful platinum butterfly koi last spring, mainly because his/her fins were longer than the body. Within ten days, he/she had turned a bright gold colour. Still healthy, eating well. I wouldn't worry too much about yours.
John

 

[Lisak1]

We had one solid orange comet turn white overnight. That was last summer and he's fine. I wonder if he'll change back?

 

[Tula]

The koi in my avatar used to be orange and black! Kim

 

[fishin4cars]

We had one solid orange comet turn white overnight. That was last summer and he's fine. I wonder if he'll change back?

Once a Koi changes it very rarely ever goes back to it's original color, BUT it may not stay the way it has changed either. Black coloration is very much effected by water temps, Red is effected by a number of different environment changes, including water quality. White is a base color, It will only change if water quality goes down, Or if it is greatly improved. Either way white will stay pretty much white.
From what I read in the Original post I think this is probably quite normal. Colder temps, fluctuations in PH/water quality, and the fact they are going deeper and further away from the UV light of the sun and less sunlight is getting to the fish all contribute to these color changes. Going white (Shiro Muji) is a common event every year. It's directly linked to genetics, Line breed fish, say Kohaku to Kohaku for several years are far more likely to stay Kohaku, Where a Kohaku breed to a Shiro Utsuri , might produce several different looking koi, and quite of few of these may start off colored but could and can change, and all white shiro muji is the most common way that they will change to.