Do fish change colour?

[BigT]

I have some goldfish, golden rudd and golden minnows in my pond. Something has bred, but the fry although about thumbnail size now, are greyish silver. Will they turn gold?

Also, I recently found a leech in the pond. Brown, smooth and about an inch long - could this harm the fish?

BigT

[pxl8]

The fry won't develop their colour until they've grown a bit but a good percentage of them will stay plain.

The leech could be one that will feed on the fish (most species are veggies!). It is rarely life threatening but the fish will be at a risk of secondary infection. There are treatments you can get to deal with leeches in your pond. An alternative method is to dangle a piece of raw liver in the pond overnight and remove it each morning with the leeches attached. Do this every night until you see no more leeches.

[Airehead]

Possibly the intensity of colour will depend on the clarity of the water. If it is always murky, for e.g., then they might remain comparatively pale. This is what happens in the wild.

[Tiggrx]

Most of the common leeches feed on snails or other small invertebrates. The only one to be wary of would be the Fish Leech (Piscicola geometra) which is a greenish colour and quite easy to identify.

[nightshade]

There are pale ones,black ones,and multi-coloured ones in my pond at the moment
even one a couple of years old which is black with a golden edge to its scales

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Some goldfish do just stay black but in my experience most change in a garden pond. In the wild this may be different, depending on the clarity of the water It sometimes takes a few years for them to change, we had a white and red goldfish, it was like this for 2-3 years then in the space of a week went completely white

[Beryl]

Originally Posted by Lincs Yellowbelly

Some goldfish do just stay black but in my experience most change in a garden pond. In the wild this may be different, depending on the clarity of the water It sometimes takes a few years for them to change, we had a white and red goldfish, it was like this for 2-3 years then in the space of a week went completely white

Maybe it saw a ghost.
No seriously. I don't know about goldfish but I saw a documenry on tropical fish and in the striped fish their stripes actually move to the rear and new stipes form from the front end so it is possible that gold fish may change as they get older

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Lincs Yellowbelly

Some goldfish do just stay black but in my experience most change in a garden pond. In the wild this may be different, depending on the clarity of the water It sometimes takes a few years for them to change, we had a white and red goldfish, it was like this for 2-3 years then in the space of a week went completely white

I was gutted when the beautiful red and black goldfish I bought went entirely red Lesson learnt - yes they do change colour!

[Boddie]

I find when I fry fish it changes colour. Does that help?

[Beryl]

Originally Posted by Boddie

I find when I fry fish it changes colour. Does that help?

That depends on the colour you change it to, I mean if it goes a charcoal colour well.........