Color change on platy?

[PuppyFluffer]

I have an orange platy. I believe it was called a Sunset platy. He's the last survivor out of an original group of 5 that I had in my first 10 gallon. He's now in a 20 with some male guppies.

He has an orange body. The color deepens to a darker reddish orange on the tail. He has a small black dot on the base of his body/beginning of the tail fin. His coloring is now changing and he is developing black dots all over. It looks like a pigment change. The dots are really small, like I dusted him with powdered sugar...only black.

Anyone else seen this happen with a platy. He's about 3 years old I am guessin.

 

[PuppyFluffer]

Hum, no one huh?

 

[FindingBlemo]

Perfectly normal to me, as long as you don't see a behavior change.

 

[birdboy5]

It's pretty normal for fish to start changing color with age. It happens all the time with goldfish. Your platy is just getting old. Most livebearing fish don't live past 4 years, I think, so don't expect him to be around much longer.

 

[patrick.paul]

Woah! Thread necro!

 

[PuppyFluffer]

yeah, it's an old thread but it served to pull me back to AC. I've been away from here for at least 6 months! Life just got busy with my family and my fish hobby has totally suffered. It was nice to see the note in my email box that someone had replied to my thread. I hope to make some time to be around here again.

 

[birdboy5]

I've only seen real color change in guppies. I start a thread on them. I don't think your platy has that trait, just its age. The color change trait allows a color changing guppy's tail to change different colors and designs. I would keep an eye out for color changers if you want to get guppies.