Hello, I am new and live in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada.

I have a question regarding the behavior of Goldfish.

I have a small 150 gallon pond in my backyard where I keep my Goldfish in the summer. In the winter, I bring them in to live in a large Aquarium.

This would have been the second year for my four original goldfish (Comets) except that in July, I had a predator (Raccoon, I think) tear apart my pond and plants and made dinner of two of them. Quite sad.

I replaced the two lost fish with two Shubunkins the same size as the Comets (about 4 in). All seemed fine for a time, then I noticed that the prettiest and the only White/Calico Shubunkin was being chased (escorted, really) around the pond, by one in particular and sometimes the other Comets. They would shimmy right up beside it and race around the pond. I worried since I knew that the Shubunkin must be getting pretty fatiqued, but I didn't know what to do. I guess i should have removed it, but where? Eventually, I noticed that the white Calico was withdrawing and not coming up to feed, prefering to hide in the rocks on the bottom. After not seeing it for a week, I noticed it dead on the bottom of the pond. Any ideas as to why this would happen? I am reluctant to get any others now for fear they will pick on the new one as well.

Thanks for any insight that you could provide.

Donna

The chasing around sounds to me like breeding behavior. She could have gotten egg bound and died because of that or she could have been harassed too much and died of stress and fatigue. Did you notice her getting fat at all when she was being chased?

Sorry to hear about your loss

Thanks for the reply, nichjake.

No, I didn't really notice if she was getting /or was fat. Such a pretty fish, so sad.

Well, maybe I'll try one more time. I really like those white/Calico Shubunkins.

Donna

The female fish dont get "pregnant" as many people think. The male chases them around (sometimes endlessly until they die...) and eventually the female will tire and release her eggs and the male them sprays his milt over the eggs to fertilise them. Females are, in general, rounder/fatter than males, but i think it would be pretty hard to tell in some comets.