Hi. I have a black pearlscale who I feed fish flakes every morning and peas everynight. I just recently came back from a long vacation (about a month) and was shocked to find my black pearlscale was no longer all black, but about 75% gold/orange. The person I left him with followed my feeding instructions exactly and after reading some stuff on this site, I realize that it must be the fish flakes that is causing this color change.
I guess the real question is if I buy fish flakes that don't have color enhancement, will his natural coloring come back? And what would be the best type to buy?

The fish flakes that I am now giving him are: TetraFin Goldfish Flakes

The flakes may be contributing to the colour change, I don't know. Black fish are notorious for changing colour, more of them change colour than stay black. Why it happens nobody really knows but I think it is more likely related to their breeding/genes rather than food.

I wasnt home for a month and when I came back I was shocked as well to how much more orange my fish were than black as when I left. Ive heard a lot of times they lose the black indoors because not enough light. Most people just cant provide ponds, ect so the fish dont stay as vivid(or black in color). This isnt always the case though and as Annette said, genes play a big role. I wouldnt worry about it though as Im sure its normal for your fish if he is still acting healthy and active.

I agree, I don't think it's likely to be solely down to the flakes, I don't think that particular flake formulation would contain powerful-enough colour enhancers for such a big change, you would normally need to mix and match a wide variety of foods to really influence colouration to that degree. From what I've read it is quite common for black fish to change colouration. There is nothing to worry about though as long as he is otherwise healthy

No color change seems to be the rare thing. All my fish that I got very small have changed colors. maybe adult fish change color less...Im interested to see a totally black pearlscale as I have never seen one before. I have 3 pearlscales and they all started out as striped yellowgold with black but are now all orange. Shame in a way as the yellow and gold stripe was so pretty.

Thanks everyone for your input. As long as he is ok, I am happy!