I have a ten gallon tank and a pinguin mini filter, i use tetra something or other to condition the watter and yea i change the watter about 2 aweek doing 15% watter changes,(have free time)and my fish is a 2 inch black moor. but anyway my problem is, when i got my fish he one scale on his left side turned gold other wise looks like it is missing, cause its really different from his dark black coat, and well now a couple days later more scales are starting to turn the same shade, its really wierd, any possible i deas, i have heard that black moores turn gold over time, but this is wierd cause its only on his left side, so i don't really know whats up, if some one could help me out that would be great...
DPG

Please help anyone? any suggestions at all?

lepperchan,

I, also, thought my fish were losing scales. I noticed that at certain angles it does appear like it, but after watching for some time it also seems like a color difference. Mine are "feeder" fish and have never been a vision of loveliness or consistent coloring. Well, to most anyway ... I have always seen their beauty. I will be keeping an eye on mine. Also, I will be anxiously awaiting a response to your post.

Donna

Was at my local petco today, and they had a tank full of small black moors. Some of them had a few orange scales mixed in among the black. They did not look very healthly, so I'm not sure if this was just a variation in coloring, or because they were sick/injured.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but this must be something that happens in black moors, since yours is not the only fish that has it. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on this?

Laura

I have a theory based on me thinking too hard about what is happening with my own moors. I know that goldfish scales are clear and their color is actually skin pigmentation. I'm not sure but I also think that, with moors, the matte/velvet effect is a property of their scales, not their skin. When my moors go through a growth spurt, yellow-gold "flecks" show up on their sides and around their scales. I think the fish are actually growing a little faster than their scales so the yellow-gold peeks through but eventually disappears.

When I bought my black moor Atilla, she was black all over, really pretty! Then one day I noticed that she had gold on her belly. Over the summer, more gold on her body, and today, she is all gold, except for the tippy tips of her tail, and fins. For a while she had a mustache, but now that's pretty much gone as well! She's still my little beauty though! Anyway, short story long, I think it can happen for reasons such as the one mentioned by Melle, or as I think happened in my case, mixed breeding! I have a picture of her when she was black, when I get a digital camera, I will take another picture of her and post the two together. She looks like a completely different fish! That's my baby!

Thanks everybody, i appertiate your help with the matter, hopefully its like a growth spurt that will eventually fade and he will become all black again, sniff sniff.

thanks again Cheers

DPG

The water has to be kept between 66 and 72 degrees. Prolonged exposure to colder temps will cause the fish to lose its color.

http://www.centralpets.com/pages/critterpa...h/FWF4548.shtml

when a black moor loses a scale, you see the skin underneath it all. the skin is actually white. ive got a black mooe that loses about 1 or 2 scales every week or two. these scales always grow back within another week to week and a half. it is normal for them to shed scales in this fashion.

i agree with the posters above that stated your moor may have some miscolored scales.

oh yeah, i think that melle is right on the money!