More likely you have spotted, meaning seen for the first time, new black fry that have been hiding from you.. The other spotted ones may have turned orange already and still be hiding..or swimming with the big fish. I had a visit last night from somebody that knocked plants over, lucky I did not seem to lose any fish..Oh by the way this is my first year ponding and I'm hooked!

First year too - and hooked. I have my wake-up tea and my after work pondering time. The whole world has awakened in the garden. I have several shubunkins and 2 ryukins and comets 2 of which are gold and white - the rest are calico colors. So it didn't surprise me that their off-spring would have spots. I'm just hoping nothing happened to them. But the additional blacks were a surprise.
I just read that ryukins are aggressive... wow - that is surprising ... they are so much smaller than the others and don't seem to grow at the same rate. And don't seem to move very fast - they seem just like little wiggle fish. I guess I'll place a post to see if anybody has had experience with aggressive ryukins.

I just read that ryukins can get aggressive. Anybody experience this ?

I have one that stayed pretty small for the 1st year. Now is very big and rather menacing looking. I have heard they are very agressive, to the point of sucking the eyes out of other fish. I hope they are meaning only the bubble-eyed fish. Since I no longer have any moors. Glenda

I might have solved the missing fish fry with black spots. This morning's pondering ... made me realize that the gold and white fry (are they "fry" if they have grown to an inch plus?) are in the same pattern as the spotted ones. So I'm guessing that the black spots were temporary. Too bad. Oh well - they don't care.

For the ryukin - mine are still little and I have been concerned that they would be the objects of aggression from the other fish. How big is very big Glenda? Mine are no more than 3 inches, though very round.

Robin

I do not know if Ryunkin are aggressive but I do know they aren't good pond fish because of their poor swimming. They tend to get eaten by predators. They also suffer swim bladder problems in deeper water. They truly do much better in an aquarium.

It can be amazing to watch the color changes. One of my two-year-old 'babies' came from the barrel with a shebunkin and a sarassa commet. It started out calico, shifted to orange and white, and in the last two weeks has turned 95% white. Meanwhile, the other two-year-old from the plain comet and sarassa comet barrel maintains it's mix of mostly orange with some white.

Suz

All fish get eaten by predators. Some more than others. That is why if you value your fish, you protect them from predators. Robin, mine is the size of a saucer at least 6-7 inches. Glenda

Suz - that is interesting. I thought I'd be able to keep track of the wellness of my fish by being able to identify them - white face, white tail, black spot, etc. But it is amazing - and now that I know - I'll enjoy.

For the ryukin - I have been worried about their swimming - sometimes seeming to turn nearly upside down when taking food from the surface. No predators yet - thankfully. Not that it would keep a heron out or raccoons - but I've got an 8 foot fence around the garden. So they are not threatened by the deer at least. :-)

My shubunkin babies appear to be calico right away. They are now around 3/4" to 1.5" long and look like tiny shubunkins while the comet babies of the same size or larger are still the dark bronze color. The dark bronze is the color of wild (original) goldfish. Most of the babies will change from solid bronze to dark +some gold and continue to change color for a few more months until they mature at which point they do not change.

Of course all fish can be eaten by predators but fancy goldfish are such poor swimmers that they are just begging to be eaten. They wiggle at the top so enticingly that even cats and dogs that normally would never bother with fish try to catch them.

They have not been bred for ponds/outdoor living as the others have. They are not as hardy as comets, commons, wakin and shubunkins.

Bubble eyes often get damaged, wens get torn up and they can be beat up by comets or other fish in the pond as they breed or compete for food.

Swim bladder problems are common in deep bodied goldfish anyway but they are worse in ponds as they are usually deeper than aquariums and often the problem can go unnoticed too.

Thanks for the info re. ryukin. I'm not sure what to do. I can certainly tell that they would be attractive to cats, etc. For the same reason I am always looking out for them - they do wiggle very enticingly. I have a 10 gallon "hospital" tank - which I could set up again. I had it set up when several fish began some bizarre behavior which I thought was the first signs of some terrible illness... turns out they were spawning !

Now I'm projecting - but it seems that taking them out of the pond where they have all these places to go and hide... and putting them in the tank would be stressful. You keep mentioning the swim bladder problem related to the deepness of a pond - would they necessarily have to swim down ? There are plenty of hyacinth, lily pads, and aerating floaters that they usually seem to be under near the surface.