He was all a lovely chocolate brown except his cream belly. he now has patches of lighter gold and cream in his chocolate. i feed pellets at night and flakes in the morning. why would he be changing color?

Thanks!
rachael

Unfortunately, black and brown are two of the more difficult colors to keep stable when breeding goldfish, paticularly for a goldfish kept indoors. He will be fine, he may end up being an orange pearlie. I once had a calico oranda as well as a orange and black oranda that lost all of their black coloration.

Hi Rachael, as the above mentioned it is most likely normal. Chocolate fish (unless a deep rich reddish brown color) will become more bronzy or have a cream/orange tint.
It is genetics, most likely will continue and he'll change and go back and forth.

It is similar with blue fish. If they aren't that deep rich color, they too will get a bronzy coloration to them.

Also, when choosing a black, chocolate or blue fish it is a good idea to pick one with very little light colour on their belly. In my experience those retain their dark colour better than young ones that have a lot of light colour there.

Anyway, whatever colour your fish turns out in the end, he will be pretty.

I have a fish that started out white and is now completely red, and a fish that was tri-colour and now is orange and white with just a bit of black on his tail. You just never know with goldfish

I think that's part of the fun with goldfish. When Mars first starting losing his black it bothered me. But now he is a big beautiful orange and white goldie and he's still as beautiful as ever. He's turning more orange now. Phoenix my oranda had orange just on top of her head and she's turning a light creamsicle color on her stomach and her orange has stretched back to her dorsal fin.

It's fun to see what happens. Humans change their colors everyday (clothing) and their haircolor, why can't goldies?

thanks for all of the replies! I am so happy to find out that it is nost likely normal and not a warning sign of a health problem. i don't really care so much about what color he is, as long as he is healthy!

It will be a surprise to see how he turns out