Goldfish Question

[aki]

We have a 6 y/o large goldfish named Tien that is in a 10 gallon filtered tank. He used to have a larger tank and other goldfish friends, but he killed them all. Never had a goldfish do that before. when we got him originally we got two and he and the other fish were fine together. when the the other fish died, i got another because i heard they get lonely. and he killed it within a week. the poor thing had no fins and was missing scaled by the time we tried to save him. so we thought maybe it was sick (don't fish pick on the sickly ones?) in the first place and got another, and watched really carefully. Tien chased it without ceasing, nipping at it. so we put it in another tank, but i dunno if it was sick or not, it died within a few days. needless to say, we didn't get him another friend for him to kill. :rolleyes:

Well we got this little silvery algae eater (not a plocostomus sp????) my daughter named Suri. Suri has been in the tank for almost a year and doing a wonderful job keeping it clean. Last night Tien tried to eat her and killed her. My daughter is devasted. :( I have never heard of a goldfish being so aggressive! has anyone else? she said that suri was in tien's mouth, just her tail sticking out and then tien spat her out and she just floated lifeless. she quickly got her out and put her in a bowl and she hardly moved at all last night. she passed in the night. :(

i guess tien is destined to be alone now. little brat!

anyone else ever heard of this kind of behaviour from a goldfish?

~Aki

[Kalei]

I've only heard of this from one other person I know, and I did think it was the strangest thing I have ever heard. I've had goldfish all my life that have lived for years and I have never had any of them eat each other. All goldfish I have known would never eat another goldfish no matter if it was 10 times smaller than it or not, goldfish are usually such friendly creatures. My goldfish won't even pick on a dead fish.

I don't really know what to say about that goldfish except that it obviously doesn't mind living alone. Do you know what breed of goldfish it is? That could possibly help to figure out why its so aggressive too. All I can really say is that since he eats everything and everyone you shouldn't put any other fish in there with him, but you've already said that lol.

But yeah, you should see what breed of goldfish it is.:)

[BorderColliez]

Hi, sorry to get off topic, but a 10 gallon tank is not big enough for a goldfish. All goldfish grow up to 8 inches unless stunted in a small tank which causes lots of pain for the fish

[Genny]

GOODNESS I can't belive your golddish eats other fish! That's crazy--never heard of that before! I've seen GF in with goldfish 10 x their size like Kalei said! They're usually sweet fish! I'd just leave him alone and let him have his 'own' tank for himself, because obviously that's what he wants. I'm sorry about the other fish that he killed :(

[IRescue452]

I've heard of this, but I always find some other reason for the "aggression". Since goldfish aren't a species that interacts much socially, they don't show what can be considered true aggression. Chasing and nipping can be because of sickly fish (I always quarentine for 2 months) or from breeding behavior. Goldfish will also swallow any fish small enough (they are opportunistic feeders). That's one reason you shouldn't put small sucker fish or algae eaters with them, they can die getting them stuck in their throat. A 10 gallon is too small to house a goldfish. I suggest just keeping your fish seperate because he eats other fish, not because he's aggressive.

[SunsetRose]

Yep, 10 gallon is too small.

My goldfish would also eat any small fish that they could fit in their mouth. They also almost ate an African Dwarf frog that I put in there. Luckily I saw this and was able to remove it and place it in a different tank immediatly.

[aki]

how big of a tank would you recommend for one goldfish?

just wondering

he is just a plain, non fancy goldfish. :D

[aki]

was just doing some reading (google) and 10-15 gal per goldfish is recommended on every site that came up.

[IRescue452]

For a single-tail, 15 gallons per 3 inches of fish is good.

[SunsetRose]

Bear in mind that goldfish get HUGE.

They can get just as big as Koi. A friend of ours started out with about 10 little tiny goldfish (like an inch long) in a 25 gallon. In less than 5 years the tank was overcrowded and on of the fish was about 6 inches long. She gave the fish to a friend with a pond where they are happily living and now even bigger.