Koi-Met' fry

[Nick83]

this is a new one to me...but, eight weeks ago my comet goldfish spawned and 4 of their fry have made it to juvenile age. In the beginning they looked just like how any goldfish would look at their age. it didn't become apparent until the two oldest started turning jet back. For weeks my wife has been trying to find out what heck is going on with our new fry. As the fish started to grow up we named them Joan and Jet. I filled a small 6 gal tank for the two other fry to be cared for indoors so we can watch their progress. At first we thought we had "dirt fish" or undesirables until the the fish in the pond started turning black. We were baffled as to what was going on because we couldn't find anything about fry turning black but with my wife's persistence she found the the answer we were looking for, our Comet goldfish are hybrids...How exciting! yesterday i was out at the pond observing my fishes and noticed Joan was starting to get red blotches new her/his head and the base of the dorsal fin. Now, today Joan is black with orange spots beginning to form on his/her head. I also learned that these fish change their spots and colors multiple times in their lives.

any questions comments you might have I would love to hear from you. pictures and video are coming. Chuce!

 

[Mmathis]

Do you have koi and comets? They could be hybrids. But they could still be GF. Please post pictures, and do so as they grow and change! It’s one of the things that makes this hobby so fascinating!

In the wild, some fish are a different color in their juvenile stage — it’s an adaptation that protects them against predators. (Think of Bambi the fawn, with spots as a disguise.). The darker color (olive or black) makes them more difficult for prey to spot, which increases their chance of survival.

There have been quite a few threads on GPF about goldfish colors: do they change, when do they change, what do they become....? It’s very interesting to watch the transformation. I currently have 3 comets that are “black” and are several years old — they usually “turn” fairly early in life but these haven’t. Two of them have a bronze-black look, and the third one is more silver-red-black (hard to describe). The bronze-black ones appear solid, but the silver-red-black one — when you look really close — has red on a couple of the fins. It’s hard to spot the red because he’s so dark. Every day I expect these guys to change.....but they show no signs. Which is fine with me — they are lovely!

Here’s a shot where I was able to get all 3 of the black ones (plus a Shubie). Note that the dark color makes them much less conspicuous. In this pic, the 2 at 11 o’clock and 3 o’clock are the “bronze” ones. The guy at 8 o’clock is the “silver” one. Surprisingly, the lighting actually shows their color differences a little.

 

[Nick83]

@Mmathis To answer your first question, no i do not have any koi. The two comets that have spawned are slightly different looking than most comets I have seen. I purchased the two "Comets" from a pet store so I think somewhere in their lineage they were offsprings of a koi and comet.

The jet black coloring is odd for sure. They started out as light shiny goldish brown on top and silver on the sides. They are old enough now to be showing some color. Their parents are solid white/pink on the female and solid orange on the male. Should common comet fry be almost 2.5" pushing 3 in 8-10 weeks?
It seems like every fish I purchased from that pet store a year ago has grown up to be something other than what I thought. my shubunkin for example isn't a shubunkin at all...he's a beautiful calico butterfly.
Getting pictures of the two fry in the pond is a task as they blend in with the black liner and the big fish always make waves when i get close. i did however snap a couple pictures of the ones inside their aquarium.

picture is terrible because they are very active in a cylindrical aquarium :/

 

[Mmathis]

Yeah, hard to tell anything from the pics (I can’t do that, either). OK, so at least you know that you don’t have a koi hybrid. In general, any goldfish with a fan tail or split tail is going to be something like a fantail, Wakin, or Watonai (or one of a few types of “fancy” or exotic GF). Single-tail GF are comets, commons, Shubunkin. All are goldfish, however. And because they are all GF, they can and will breed with each other, so it’s not uncommon to have mixes. And that’s what makes it so much fun — never know what you’re going to end up with.

 

[Nick83]

I was able to get a couple pics. still pretty blurry but you can see the coloring.

and a better one of the youngest inside.

...i stand corrected, the two in the tank are not the youngest. i found another 2cm fry in my bog and is currently in the breeder/nursery box.

 

[Nick83]

@Mmathis Some big changes this week! Joan is getting a lot more color. Jette on the other hand is slowly changing and is getting a light spot on top of his/her head kind of looks like a third eye today but is still midnight black other than it's underbelly.

The little guys inside the aquarium are changing color but it's fluctuating from light to dark and vice'versa. Nonetheless, watching these little guys grow and change before my eyes is really cool!

 

[Nick83]

Here's a quick little update on these fry. They all have grown up so quickly!

 

[Tara]

This was interesting, thanks for the pictures, they really changed a lot, it quite amazing.