Black Telescope changed color!

Question
I have a Black Telescope fish that lives in a tank with a fancy goldfish, a white/orange oranda, a small tropical looking fish and a pecauscomous (bottom feeder).  I have had them in this tank for about a year and everything has been fine.  Well over the last 2 weeks the black telescope has gone from all black to 98% orange.  The only black left on him is around his eyes and tips of his fins.  The only change that has been made is that the brand of floating pellets we have been feeding them.  We were feeding them TopFin floating pellets and when we ran out we couldn't find the same brand in our usual stores so we bought Wardley floating pellets.  We do usual water changes and the PH is always perfect.  Our filter is a Penguin Mini Bio-Wheel Power filter(it holds filters that have carbon in it).  It is for aquariums up to 20 gallons - our tank is less than 20 gallons.  I also noticed for the first time ever that there are worms in the stones of the tank.  I think they are anchor worms from what I have seen.  With all this our Black (now orange) Telscope does not seem to be in any type of distress - his eyes are fine, his scales are fine and he doesn't seem lathargic or anything.  The fish are also fed flakes in combination with the pellets (the flakes are Wardley goldfish flakes).  I hope you can help us answer this mystery, no one else has been able to help.

Answer
Hi Tom;

Goldfish change color over the course of their lives. It isn't anything to worry about. He is just an orange telescope instead of a black one now.

If the worms you see are tiny white ones, they are totally harmless to your fish. They are 'planaria' and are feeding off of excess waste. If they were anchor worms you would see them attached to the fish. You cannot just kill planaria. They have to be starved out by removing their food source. (Chemicals don't kill them, but can harm the fish; cleaning out the whole tank causes 'new tank syndrome' and that is dangerous to the fish too.) Planaria are tough little critters, and since they aren't harmful there isn't any reason to try killing them anyway. They are actually a good indicator of potential danger. Too many planaria means too much food going in. Your fish could become sick and you might not know why or what's going on.

To make the planaria go away, vacuum the gravel and make 25% water changes at least once a week for a couple of weeks. (You should be doing this at least every two weeks anyway). Also cut back on the amount of food you feed by about 1/3. The planaria will slowly starve out and disappear to show that what you are doing has been effective. If you see them again, cut back and clean some more again. We all overfeed sometimes, we just have to clean up after ourselves when we do.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

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