Magical colour changing carp? What the...?

[rabbit]

Early last summer a good friend and I were talking about making a local biotope style aquarium using local fishes and plants. So off we went to a local creek and obtained a few small specimens including one baby carp.
Long story short, aquarium didnt happen and I returned all fishies back to where they came from except for the carp which remained in a container water garden I have set up with a pair of goldfish.
This fish was your typical silvery-type fish. In other words, designed so that you could almost not see it from above (due to blending into background).
About 2 months ago I noticed that the body scales were getting lighter and lighter, and now it has become almost canary yellow, with some dark patches here and there along its spine. Its almost as if its becoming a goldfish itself.

Is this normal? Ive never heard of this before. (I have to say, that the coloration is quite attractive however).

 

[justDIY]

I think a lot of your carp do this.

I've bought regular goldfish that were silver and black as babies and matured to be right gold with no trace os their original colors.

I've also had toothed carp (mollies and platties) that change color as they age. Probably has to do with diet and delayed genetic expression.

 

[Guest]

This fish was your typical silvery-type fish. In other words, designed so that you could almost not see it from above (due to blending into background).
About 2 months ago I noticed that the body scales were getting lighter and lighter, and now it has become almost canary yellow, with some dark patches here and there along its spine. Its almost as if its becoming a goldfish itself.

Goldfish and carp are from the same family of fishes. Also, big carp are kind of orange, so i think that is natural. Many baby fish have different colors that the adults also.

I've had similar exp. as shawmutt, bought cheapo goldfish, all silver-black looking. as they grew, some went darkbrown/black, some went orange, some were mixed colors.