My Yellow Goldfish is more orange...

[Lewis]

Hello everyone.

Today (24th January 2010) I went and bought myself two yellow goldfish. They were a canary yellow when I saw them and I decided to pay an extra £1 for a yellow one. After about 10 - 25 minuets of walking home I then put my fish into my ready prepered tank, wich had some chemicals in it to kill clorine and things. When I put them in I noticed they were no longer yellow, they had gone orange...

Please answer theise questions for me!

1) Why did it change colour?
2) Can I change it back to Yellow?
3) Will it ever go back to the original colour (Yellow)?


Thanks alot.

 

[HN1]

I can't answer the color related questions. What size tank is it? Goldfish are really messy and need larger tanks than is often recommended. Also, the chemicals aren't going to do what you need. You may want to read up on fishless cycling a bit. You may have gotten some misinformation in the past. Welcome to AA!

 

[Aquarium1]

I read that you don't have a light over your aquarium so it could be that, which could be making them look a different color.

 

[joy13]

If the fish were overly stressed at the store their colors will be washed out. To give you an example I got what I thought was a peach betta within 2 hours in a small tank he was dark brown.

A goldfish needs at least 20 gallons for the first fish and 10 for every fish after. I have saw a goldfish that was won at a fair that was 15 years old and at least 10 inches long.

 

[jsoong]

Goldfish can change color to blend in with their environment, up to a point. Their color also change with age also. So what you see at the lfs is not what you will get, esp. in young frys.

If the fish is against a white background, it will try to lighten up its color to match. This may be what is happening at the lfs. OTOH, a stressed fish will be faded as well, esp. when housed in crowded conditions in the store.

If color is important to you, you would need to choose the fish against a black background, preferable wait sometime for the fish to be not stressed from the handling & also to acclimatized to the new container. At a fancy goldfish breeder, you could get a fish, put it in a separate container, & observe & inspect it to your heart's content before shelling out $$$. This is not usu. the practice at your typical pet store.

BTW - my one & only yellow goldfish I bought as a pure silver fry. This is a general rule ... young fish will tend to revert to the basic orange color as it grows. So a dark/black fish will tend to lighten up, & a light fish will tend to get darker. This is one way to guess at what the eventual color of a fish may be. (YMMV!) Or you can pay big bucks for a full grown goldfish (4-5" min.) with established color & finnage.

 

[Lewis]

Hes yellow again, I think he was in shock. Thanks all

 

[Mark Hewitt]

It would be useful for us if you told us the size of your tank. There is no such thing as 'average size'.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Ah, hang on. You mentioned Spongebob square pants. I've seen that tank in Pets at Home, they are very popular - unfortunately.

SpongeBob Themed Fish Tank Starter Kit | Pets at Home

It's a 15 litre, (4 US gallon) tank. Made out of plastic.
Of course completely unsuitable for even one goldfish