I've got a 10 gallon tank that the common goldfish had all to itself until yesterday, when I added a snail and a fantail goldfish. The fantail is much smaller than the common, and the common fish soon started chasing the fantail around.
I can't really tell if it is nipping at the fantail or not, if he/she is, it's not getting any bites out of the fins at all...but the common fish is doing an awful lot of pushing and shoving and just overall being very aggressive. The fantail had taken to hiding behind some plants, anytime it came out the common would start bullying again...so I finally took the fantail out into a smaller tank where it would be safe from the common goldfish.
1) Is this normal goldfish behavior? I've already done a lot of Googling about this and it seems that it isn't. Though I did find one source that said the pairing of a fantail and a common is not a good combo (the employee at my LFS said it was okay...)
2) I understand this kind of thing can also be normal breeding behavior. Is it possible that the common goldfish is trying to breed with the fantail...even though I just added it in?
3) What can I do if it's not breeding/otherwise normal behavior? I'm thinking tank divider and then try to help them get used to eachother?
I can't really tell if it is nipping at the fantail or not, if he/she is, it's not getting any bites out of the fins at all...but the common fish is doing an awful lot of pushing and shoving and just overall being very aggressive. The fantail had taken to hiding behind some plants, anytime it came out the common would start bullying again...so I finally took the fantail out into a smaller tank where it would be safe from the common goldfish.
1) Is this normal goldfish behavior? I've already done a lot of Googling about this and it seems that it isn't. Though I did find one source that said the pairing of a fantail and a common is not a good combo (the employee at my LFS said it was okay...)
2) I understand this kind of thing can also be normal breeding behavior. Is it possible that the common goldfish is trying to breed with the fantail...even though I just added it in?
3) What can I do if it's not breeding/otherwise normal behavior? I'm thinking tank divider and then try to help them get used to eachother?