Goldfish chasing one fish!

[smjt]

I'm a little concerned about one of my goldfish. The poor thing is being chased all around my pond by my other goldfish. Maybe goldfish "play", I just don't know. But it's just one fish that the other fish are chasing? Could it be a "mating" ritual? I have 9 fancy goldfish ranging in sizes of about 3 inches to 1 inch. All the goldfish seem healthy, eating well...what could this be and am I overacting? Thanks for your help!

[UvgotDenise]

Smjt, Hi Welcome! The fish are doing the love dance They are getting ready to spawn or she did already

[smjt]

Thank you for getting back to me. After doing a little research on the mating/spawning subject, this is what I assumed my fish were doing! WOW! Just wondering if I will get any new baby fish out of this, or do you think the other fish will eat all the eggs? I have a small pond (325 gallons), so I really can't afford to have many more fish...it would be neat to see some of the babies though...I don't have a lot of plants/vegetation for the eggs to hide, so I think my chances of are slim to none that I will see babies? What do you all think? Thanks again, this message board is SO helpful!!!

[UvgotDenise]

SMjt, I don't think you will have too many babies if any, the fry (babies) need somewhere to hide or the other fish will eat them. If you don't have the plants then the eggs will most likely just be eatten

[bboozen]

This is great, I am seeing the exact same thing with three of my goldfish constantly "hounding" another one and I was wondering if they were trying to kill it

I noticed my fish will hide out in the skimmer alot to avoid the others...is that bad? Sometimes I will let her hang out there all day to avoid the "rat race"...should I scoop her out when that happens? Lastly, if there are going to be babies, how long before I will see them?

Thanks,
Brian

[CareBear59]

My female gold fish was being chased all the time by a male gold fish and a comet. "Cupid" would swim and hide in the filter. I let her stay in there for a while a few hours at a time because the male fish were unmerciful on her. Unfortunately, the mating ritual may have killed "Cupid" because there were marks on the side of her body or she could have died because she was in the filter on and off. Sorry I can't answer your question about the filter problem, just letting you know what happened to my fish.