Here are a few pics of my goldfish







In this pic you can see how yellow the red and white fish's head is where there are no scales to give it that metallic white colour.


When the fish spawned I put a couple of pieces of pond plant with eggs on them into the quarantine pond (where the frogs where spawning) and then went to look on the net for information about baby goldfish and found out that the water was too deep etc etc so I put some more river stones in the main fish pond where most of the reedy plants are and added more plants and hoped that that would help something survive.

I watched for a few weeks and only saw tadpoles in the quarantine pond but I saw 1 fry in the bigger pond. I saw it every day for about a week then I came out one day and the big fish had trashed the plants in that area and I didn't see the fry again. I left the plants that had been pulled up floating in case the little one was hiding among them.

Then while I was watching the tadpoles I found 3 baby goldfish in the quarantine pond - YAY, AND about 2 weeks ago I saw something small and dark dart across the middle of the bigger pond - kept looking for quite a while and saw it again. Had to take a pic.

Dark baby goldfish circled.

He/she is still going strong. Hangs around with the big boys now.

One of the babies turned a very bright golden orange while it was still very very small. 2 others remain bronze and 1 is almost black.

I plan to put them all together for the winter and then get a bigger pond in spring.

That's wierd, he's got no scales at all on his head? He certainly looks fat and healthy...never saw anything like that before.

Hey, that's awesome CG! Hopefully the little fella's hang in there and continue growing. I am envious! Would love to have a few "home grown" myself, but nothing so far.

Derrick

His head is much the same texture as the others' but there is just no pigment so no colour.

Just adding editing to add .....he is actually the boss of the pond. Spends a lot of time chasing and threatening while the other 2 play tag team taking turns being chased and eating.

He is also the most social by far - first to put his head up to day hello and ask for food but pretty quick to hide under another fish when he thinks there might be danger about.

I think he just doesn't have a guanine layer there so you can just pretty much see through it because the guanine layer is what causes the reflectivity and creates that shiny metallic look.

Have to admit he is a bit funny looking though :lol:

Nice Pictures CG, that is one neat looking fish!

Hey Derrick! Careful what you wish for, I wished for baby fish and got over 3,000!!!! Now 3 or 4 little kids would be NICE ;)

Cool looking muti- colored goldfish there, Coldgold Great shots too. :lol:

Careful what YOU wish for KK! 4 0r 5 kids, or grandkids? LOL :D
Derrick

That's a neat fish! SadieMay, I think the goldfish has scales all over. It's just that in the yellow areas, they are basically see through. The various colors come from colors reflecting (white reflects all, black absorbs all wavelengths). I don't know enough about scaleology (not such thing!).

Thanks - he is a real personality.

I haven't been very well lately and am not expressing myself very well :(
I'll try again and take my time this time ;)

The fish has normal scales. The head has the normal plate -like areas that are not shaped like the small body scales but are mad up of the shame material. This part of his body has no pigment cells and no guanine layer so no colour and no metallic shine - just see through.

All fish scales are transparent. They have no colour. So what matters is what is under the scales.

Under the scales (and on the fins and tail) there are pigment cells - melanophores: black (melanin); erythrophores: red (pteridines and carotenids); xanthophores: yellow (carotenids)

Also under the scales there can be a guanine layer with 2 different types of cell - leucophores with small crystals of guanine and iridophores with large crystals. The large crystals are more reflective.

Depending on which and how many of these cells the fish has the fish will be either shiny and reflective (ie meatallic) or pearl or, if it has none, matt.

A white or silver white fish has no pigment but has plenty of guanine. The larger the crystals the more metallic looking the fish is.


So using my fish as an example: His body has has erythrophores and xanthophores in the red areas, no pigment cells in the white areas but he has a guanine layer all over his body(reflection but no colour).

But his head has no pigment cells and no guanine layer - like a "pink" (albino) fish so you can just see through it. I have to admit he is the only goldfish I have seen with no colour or guanine on its head. I have seen a koi with about the front third of its head transparent though.

He has no melanophores. He did when he was a baby. Except for albinos all gold fish are born with melanophores but those cells tend to die and not replace themselves. They usually get replaced with other colours. If not the area turns white. If they are replaced by orange the area may stay orange but it is also possible for those pigment cells to die and leave the area white. Which is why gold fish change colours.

One of my baby goldfish in the quarantine pond lost all its melanophores before it was even an inch long and is now a lovely pale shiny yellow orange. It only just big enough for me to see that cute little black mustache they have before the last of the black disappears.

This is a really interesting article on colour change in goldfish if anyone is interested in that topic.
http://thegab.org/Articles/ColorChange.html

Thanks for that article CG. Just don't ask me to explain it to someone else :D

I was gonna say exactly what ColdGold said! ;)

Is this a fish that was purchased, or from one of your ponds spawnings? I would be curious as to whether you could reproduce the effect if you knew the proper lineake.

Derrick

I bought him when he was tiny. I got one golden orange, one red orange and him - just as he is now except his head was pinker and he some dark edges on his fins and tail. It would be interesting, though to see if it could be bred for. I am beginning to wonder if the 3 dark babies I have are going to change colour at all. Time will tell I guess.

The golden orange one is the female and she is almost as dark as the red orange one now. I can only be really sure of which is which when I see them with their heads down and their tails up,lol. She is still golden orange underneath and she is generally rounder form that angle.

Neat looking fish. They look happy. Your water is clear too.
Thanks for sharing :)