I've seen a lot of goldfish being sold as black moors/being shipped into the stores as them who aren't black. They're a bronzey colour. Some of them do and some don't have the bubbled out eyes. Is that a crossbred moor, or a low quality one or what? Or are the people shipping the fish to the stores just not paying attention and giving them a different colour of fantails instead?

Hmm, I've seen Moors like that too. Actually, the Moor I had a few years ago was jet black when I bought him and as he got older his belly turned bronze, and then a fiery red/orange. You may have seen this Moore mid-transition? I think this is pretty common with Moors. I remember reading somewhere on here that it is hard to maintain the color black in goldfish. If fed color enhancing food (which I sure as heck did!) fish with black pigment will tend to loose some of their black, as with some calico's, or will bronze over time, for Moors.

Makes sense I suppose. I think I've read that they are hard to keep black too. I was just asking because I think the colour is really pretty

I agree, bronze is really pretty! I have seen Chocolate(y) colored fish too. I wonder if they stay that way? Or if they turn orange... Hmm, maybe someone with more info will come along... **crosses fingers**

Like you suspected, the bronze is often a transition between the black and red. Usually the brown or chocolate fish turn bright orange when they are mature. I have seen black and red moors being sold at premium prices, when in reality they were just black fish turning red!

Often when you see tricolor fish (white with black and red, not calico) they will lose the black. I have a large panda moor who has lost all but a little black on the tip of her nose. A black spot on her head turned orange.

black color on goldfish is the least stable of colors. Very high quality moors will remain black. However most pet shop quality ones are brassy at best and will probably fade or turn completely orange over time. Placing a black fish in water that has access to sun light will aide in keeping him black. Do not feed any of those color enhancing foods that promote the red color. This will also cause him to change color. As far as the eyes being pushed out or not, there is a lot of variation when it comes to how far the eyes protrude out in moors, the high quality ones having the greatest eye development

That is a great point about feeding the color enhancing food! It is also true if you have calico fish--the yellows and reds will start to overtake the silver and blue in the calico fish.

Spider man, for years I've heard about sunlight being the best thing to keep a fish black. This spring I started putting my different calicoes out in my pond to brighten them back up. One of my small fantails has lost almost all his black after a few weeks of being out in the sun!! I was very surprised by that, but it could be that he is young and still growing. It really brought out the black in another of my calicoes though.