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Date: 28 Oct 2005 01:45:52
From: mj
Subject: aggression or mating?
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After four happy years together one of our goldfish (Goldie) died in August
and left the other (Dottie) alone. They had seemed happy together and kept
each other company. About two weeks ago we decided to get Dottie a partner
and invested in a new fish, Spottie. After about a week in an isolation
tank, we put Spottie in with Dottie.
For the first hour, Spottie seemed to harrass Dottie. Dottie spent all her
(his?) time trying to get away. Spottie was swimming up underneath and
nudging Dottie between the pectoral fins and near the face but not the eyes.
It seemed to get better after about an hour, but now five days later,
Spottie is at it again, swimming at Dottie poking Dottie. Dottie now has a
dorsal fin w/red streaks which seem new over the past hour or two, like it
has been bloodied.
We are re-preparing the isolation tank and will place Spottie in the
isolation tank again, largely to give Dottie a break.
We have no idea the gender of the fish. Any clue whether this is aggressive
behavior or mating behavior? Are we now destined to have two tanks forever?
Can we put in a little chemical to calm down the hormones in there? Poor
Dottie seems so unhappy.
Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom.
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Date: 29 Oct 2005 16:35:07
From: Secret Squiddle
Subject: Re: aggression or mating?
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"mj" <mjmd@removethis.journalclub.org > wrote in message
news:kpf8f.7479$p_6.4975@trndny07...
> After four happy years together one of our goldfish (Goldie) died in
> August and left the other (Dottie) alone. They had seemed happy together
> and kept each other company. About two weeks ago we decided to get Dottie
> a partner and invested in a new fish, Spottie. After about a week in an
> isolation tank, we put Spottie in with Dottie.
>
> For the first hour, Spottie seemed to harrass Dottie. Dottie spent all
> her (his?) time trying to get away. Spottie was swimming up underneath
> and nudging Dottie between the pectoral fins and near the face but not the
> eyes.
>
> It seemed to get better after about an hour, but now five days later,
> Spottie is at it again, swimming at Dottie poking Dottie. Dottie now has a
> dorsal fin w/red streaks which seem new over the past hour or two, like it
> has been bloodied.
>
> We are re-preparing the isolation tank and will place Spottie in the
> isolation tank again, largely to give Dottie a break.
>
> We have no idea the gender of the fish. Any clue whether this is
> aggressive behavior or mating behavior? Are we now destined to have two
> tanks forever? Can we put in a little chemical to calm down the hormones
> in there? Poor Dottie seems so unhappy.
>
> Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom.
Goldfish will only attempt to spawn if the conditions are correct, so you
can change the enviroment to stop this behaviour. If the tank is heated, or
near a heat source, then lowering the temp to under 70f will probably do the
trick(65f would be idea) Be aware that your fish will also require less food
when kept at a lower temperature.
If you can't do this, or it's impracticle, then consider getting a few more
fish - so the one female doesn't get all the attention. Sexing goldfish is
difficult, but the clear signs are:
Males: Small white spots on the gills when in season
Females: Swollen tummy when in season
These signs are not always present.
Male goldfish will attempt to spawn with ANY other fish (even other
species!) when they are in season, so the signs you decribe do not mean that
Dottie is a female. Could well be two males. I would say confidently that
that new fish is a male, due to the behaviour displyed.
Male goldfish can be very rough when they are attempting to spawn, and have
been known to kill the female (or male) partner, so anything you can do to
prevent this would benefit the other fish. Introducing other fish would
lessen the burden on your older fish (if space allows).
Also, should the fish successfully spawn the parents will eat all the eggs,
unless the eggs are removed to safety after spawning.
**SS**
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Date: 28 Oct 2005 10:26:23
From: exxos
Subject: Re: aggression or mating?
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"mj" <mjmd@removethis.journalclub.org > wrote in message
news:kpf8f.7479$p_6.4975@trndny07...
> After four happy years together one of our goldfish (Goldie) died in
> August and left the other (Dottie) alone. They had seemed happy together
> and kept each other company. About two weeks ago we decided to get Dottie
> a partner and invested in a new fish, Spottie. After about a week in an
> isolation tank, we put Spottie in with Dottie.
>
> For the first hour, Spottie seemed to harrass Dottie. Dottie spent all
> her (his?) time trying to get away. Spottie was swimming up underneath
> and nudging Dottie between the pectoral fins and near the face but not the
> eyes.
>
> It seemed to get better after about an hour, but now five days later,
> Spottie is at it again, swimming at Dottie poking Dottie. Dottie now has a
> dorsal fin w/red streaks which seem new over the past hour or two, like it
> has been bloodied.
>
> We are re-preparing the isolation tank and will place Spottie in the
> isolation tank again, largely to give Dottie a break.
>
> We have no idea the gender of the fish. Any clue whether this is
> aggressive behavior or mating behavior? Are we now destined to have two
> tanks forever? Can we put in a little chemical to calm down the hormones
> in there? Poor Dottie seems so unhappy.
>
> Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom.
>
My girlfriend has 5 fish in a tank, 2 of them chase around 2 of the others
all the time, sometimes theres 3 in a row chasing eachother, I myself keep a
large pond outside, they do chase eachother a lot when its warm... my gf
fish get poked and pushed around, apparently the males give the females hell
so I put it down to that.... if they were fighting then I would have thought
at least by now that one of the fish would have fought back, assuming these
are the females they never fight back... I think if the fish were being hurt
they would shoot out of the way... I'm no expert on the matter, but I would
put it down to "love taps" ;-)
Chris
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