when we first went to Hawaii 20 yrs ago we went snorkeling - it was the most
beautiful + amazing sight i had ever seen. 8 years later we went back and
there were half the number of fish. shortly after that i read that divers
were using poison to paralyze the fish to catch them to sell for aquariums
and only 1 in 8 survived. i don't know if they still do that but i
considered it a great tragedy. i still enjoy my ponds but nothing compares
to what nature can do. it certainly humbled me.. donna
"Hal" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 07:40:27 EDT, "D Kat"
wrote:

I do enjoy it all. Thank you. One of my biggest surprises were some
black
gold fish that turned orange when they were quite old - they were probably
6
inches (body not tail) by the time they changed. There is one now that I
would like to catch and separate into the smaller pond just so I could
watch
the color change more carefully. He is more blue than black and has hints
of vertical gold stripes. The oddest color I have ever seen. Donna

When I bought the feeders this spring I got mostly gold, with a couple
red and white about 2" or less and I noticed one of the gold now has
black trim along the fins and tail. I had noticed a couple black
goldfish turning after a couple years of being black, but nothing so
interesting as yours with the hint of vertical stripes.

I did notice years ago when I was snorkeling some ocean/reef fish take
on stripes when they are hiding among growth on a reef, but lose the
stripes when they swim out to the open. That has nothing to do with
goldfish, but I found it interesting and it does make me wonder.
--
Hal Middle Georgia, Zone 8
http://tinyurl.com/2fxzcb