Black moor goldfish

Overview

The black moor goldfish (Carassius auratus) is a velvety-black, telescope-eyed fancy with a rounded body and flowing twin tails. It reaches 15–20 cm and lives 10–15 years. Its most defining — and most limiting — feature is its protruding eyes and poor eyesight: a black moor is a slow, gentle fish that struggles to compete for food and needs a carefully arranged, hazard-free tank. Get that right and it is a calm, endearing centrepiece.

Tank & water

Give one black moor 75 litres (20 gallons), plus about 40 litres per extra fish. Priorities:

• No heater, but avoid chills: black moors are cold-water fish that prefer 18–23 °C as a sensitive fancy.
• Gentle flow, smooth décor: their telescope eyes are fragile and their sight is poor — use rounded ornaments and a tempered external filter outflow.
• Clean, stable water: over-filter and keep on top of changes.

Feeding

Black moors are omnivores, but their weak eyesight makes feeding the key challenge. Use a quality sinking goldfish food so they can find it on the bottom, and give them time to eat. Add blanched peas and soft vegetables plus occasional frozen treats. Sinking food also reduces the air-gulping that causes swim-bladder issues in round-bodied fancies. Feed small amounts once or twice daily and keep up with maintenance.

Tankmates

Keep black moors only with slow, gentle fancy goldfish — orandas, ranchu, lionheads, celestials and bubble-eyes — which won’t out-race them to food. Never house them with fast single-tailed goldfish (comets, shubunkins) or any nippy fish, and never with tropical community species. A group of similarly slow fancies in a spacious tank is ideal — plan numbers with how many fish in an aquarium.

One quirk to expect: young black moors are jet-black and velvety, but many gradually fade toward bronze or orange as they age, particularly in warmer or brighter tanks. This is normal and harmless — it is a colour change, not illness. A black moor that stays deep black for years is simply one kept in cooler, stable, well-managed water, which is exactly the environment the variety prefers anyway.