gold cap, color fading

[dimramon]

I have a gold cap in one of my cold water tanks and in less than 48 hours, his red cap disappeared. None of the fish are ill, water parameters are fine. I've had the fish for a couple of months and never had any problems with it. Has anyone here ever encountered this?

[GEV83]

So what it looks like a normal goldfish now or the color just faded???

[dimramon]

It's white now, completely white. The body has always been white and the head red but, the entire fish is now white.

[GEV83]

weird never heard of that happening

[avoxo]

Hi dim, this is unfortunately a common thing with goldfish. Black is the color most likely to lose but red caps also lose their color. The best way to describe is its like a sun tan, most if not all goldfish are breed in outdoor ponds. The sun hits these ponds all day long, giving the gold fish more pigment. Once the goldfish are taken away from the ponds and brought indoors to sell, they begin to lose their color some faster than others.

Don’t waste your money on color enhancing foods, because they don’t work. You could try to bring in some sunlight into your tank but that will cause algae to grow.

I had a black oranda turn completely a pale orange in about 3 weeks, bummed me out big time, still healthy and growing though. I had a blue oranda the got a bronze patch on its back that turned to a velvety black almost like a black moor. I wish I could tell you something that would help you out but that’s just nature. :rolleyes:

Avoxo