Goldfish Care Tips

A Free Monthly Resource For Goldfish Enthusiasts
January 2024
Issue #121

In This Issue
Black Moor Care

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The Black Moor is the most popular fancy Goldfish variety sold, by a wide margin.

Black Moor Goldfish

Why is this?

I suspect it is the black coloration that makes them stand out from all the other Goldfish in a retail setting.

An aquarist setting up a goldfish aquarium that wants a bit of variety from just gold fish, what better variety to choose than the Black Moor. With its velvety black coloration, deep body, twin tails and telescopic eyes you can’t get much more different from the most popular variety sold, the Comet.

They are a favorite of mine that I have kept and bred for many years. I presently own 25 of varying ages.

Unfortunately, sick Black Moor are one of the most common varieties that appear on social media posts, with the owner wanting advice on how to cure their fish.

One myth to dispatch immediately is that Black Moor are a weak fancy variety, more susceptible to diseases than most. The evidence offered is that they are the first to succumb to disease in a mixed variety aquarium.

This is often the case, but there are reasons for that, and the main one centers around feeding.

Feeding Black Moor

Being a deep bodied variety, Black Moor are susceptible to buoyancy issues if fed a poor diet lacking in variety, especially green foods. They are no more susceptible than any other deep bodied variety.

The main feeding problem with Black Moor is whether they are receiving their fair share of the food at feeding time. If kept in a mixed aquarium with normal eyed varieties, and no feeding regime is used to ensure the Moors are getting their fair share, I can guarantee that they are missing out. The problem becomes more pronounced the greater the number of fish in the aquarium.

What are the signs of this?

1. All the other fish are growing, but the Moor isn’t
2. The Moor is hyper-active at feeding time compared to the rest
3. The body shape of the moor is less plump than the rest and
4. The Moor keeps getting sick (but when isolated and fed separately recovers quickly).

Size differences

It is often reported on social media that the Moor in a mixed variety aquarium has lost one of their eyes, and the eye has disappeared.

It is usually assumed that the Moor has somehow knocked the eye out on a decoration or a piece of aquarium equipment.

The more likely cause is one of the other fish has sucked the eye out. This happens more often when the Moor is smaller than some of the other aquarium fish. It can also happen to normal eyed fish but is less common.

Color Changes

Another concern for Black Moor owners is when their fish starts to change color, some suspecting that the fish has a disease.

Changing color for any black Goldfish variety is common, as it is inherently an unstable color.

All metallic scaled Goldfish, which Moor are, go through a color change, going from a gray to a darker color, often black if kept in strong sunlight before changing to gold.

Black Moor stop this process at the first stage remaining black.

As they get older many Black Moor will restart the color change process. Some will completely change color, others will stop midway through the process.

Many goldfish keepers keep their fish permanently at a high temperature, and this is thought to trigger the color change process. It is a technique used by Goldfish breeders to accelerate the color change in their metallic scaled spawns.

Click here to read more about Black Moor care...

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Next Month's Topic

The aquarium size debate

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