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Willow · 05-29-2005, 07:03 PM

I have 6 fancy goldies (between 1inch-2inches each) in a 20 gallon tank.....I know it's too small, and I'll be getting a larger tank soon. Until I do, I'm doing 25% partial water changes twice a week. My question is: when I bought them, the orange oranda and the orange ryukin both had lovely black edges on their tails and dorsal fins. Also, the calico? (not calico if she loses her black) ryukin had an orange spot on her head with a smaller black spot inside that orange spot, and black edging on her tail. All of them have lost the black markings, though the calico ryukin still has a little black edging on her tail, but it's almost gone. Is this normal? I know there can be a lot of variation in coloring, but it's weird (for me) that they lost all their black markings. Water quality is good; ammonia and nitrites are so low they don't even register in the tests, PH is fairly acidic, nitrates are slightly high, but not too bad. I have a Penguin filter with a Bio-Wheel, and an undergravel filter with a reverse-flow powerhead with a biological sponge pre-filter, so biological filtration is pretty good. The black moor has also changed color--for the better--when I bought them, he was almost completely bronze, now he's a nice velvety black all over, so something's going right for him.

05-29-2005, 07:03 PM	#1
Willow Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 129	Black markings gone? I have 6 fancy goldies (between 1inch-2inches each) in a 20 gallon tank.....I know it's too small, and I'll be getting a larger tank soon. Until I do, I'm doing 25% partial water changes twice a week. My question is: when I bought them, the orange oranda and the orange ryukin both had lovely black edges on their tails and dorsal fins. Also, the calico? (not calico if she loses her black) ryukin had an orange spot on her head with a smaller black spot inside that orange spot, and black edging on her tail. All of them have lost the black markings, though the calico ryukin still has a little black edging on her tail, but it's almost gone. Is this normal? I know there can be a lot of variation in coloring, but it's weird (for me) that they lost all their black markings. Water quality is good; ammonia and nitrites are so low they don't even register in the tests, PH is fairly acidic, nitrates are slightly high, but not too bad. I have a Penguin filter with a Bio-Wheel, and an undergravel filter with a reverse-flow powerhead with a biological sponge pre-filter, so biological filtration is pretty good. The black moor has also changed color--for the better--when I bought them, he was almost completely bronze, now he's a nice velvety black all over, so something's going right for him.