Okay, I am new here! We recently bought a Comet and a Calico Comet and put them in a 20 gal. tank together. They were in the same tank at the pet store and seemed fine....but only 2 days later, I am pretty sure the smaller Calico is dying. Just this morning I saw the Comet biting the Calico and I am pretty sure he has ripped some of his fins off. Now the Calico is just kind of floating sideways toward the bottom of the tank and I don't know what to do! We did take the Comet out of the tank until we can figure out what to do here! Any suggestions? And is this common?

Okay, this happened to me once. My oranda (Lumpy) was almost ripping the fins off my pearlscale (Golfball) so I eventualy had to buy them a tank divider to separate them. I have high hopes of re-introducing them in the future though.

I would quarantine the calico and give it aquarium salt to help the healing process. Make sure that it has at least 10 gallons of water though. You may want to look into getting another tank for the calico or just putting in a divider. How big are they? It might be an issue of a big fish picking on a little fish.

Hope the fish can make a good recovery.

Are they largeer Comets or are they still babies? If they're still babies in a 20gal, they shouldn't be fighting over turf.

Thanks for the prompt responses, guys-- unfortunately, the Calico didn't make it. I am thinking that he may have been sick when I got him and I just didn't know it. I am new to keeping goldfish, so I guess this will be a learning experience for me. I just hope my daughter doesn't notice that he is gone!
The Comet is about 5 inches long, so I guess he is not actually a baby? The Calico was smaller than him, but they seemed to get along fine at first.

Could you answer these questions below, please? They may not seem connected to the problem your having, but many goldfish problems stem from other underlying things other than the problem itself.

- Do you use any water conditioners?
- What kind of filter have you got and what's the turnover rate?
- Does the calico comet showed any symptoms prior to death e.g. clamped fins, rubbing against the gravel/wall, white dots on his body, lethargy, or anything out of the ordinary?


PS: A calico comet is called a shubunkin