Psychlist1972

Do they prefer to school/shoal? I've noticed in times of stress, and often times at night when sleeping/resting, my goldies all huddle together side by side.

Pete

Lucy

Interesting question. I always though they prefered a few of the own kind, but I don't know for sure.

TFA101

I don't think they school like the minnows and tetras, but they are social fish and should have others of their own kind to interact with.

joy1125

that is an interesting question. Since most goldies get so huge, one would need a humongous tank to house schooling goldfish...lol.... that's probably why you won't get a definitive answer from anyone here, except maybe Gremlin, who has goldies in her pond !

I do know that golfish are social, like TFA said, and should only be homed with other goldfish similar to their body type. When I had my one goldfish alone in the tank before I bought my additional two, she was very lonely and shy, rarely coming out to the middle of the tank. She mostly hung behind the plants, or hid behind the driftwood. She almost seemed afraid of me, and only greeted me when I fed her.

Now that months have gone by, and I have 3 in the tank, she (along with the others) are doing great. She's the biggest and most active one ! Very social with me, too !

Caligo'sKeeper

That is a good question, I agree they are social (though I currently have only one, she's been alone a few years now and never was skidish. Though sometimes I wonder if she's lonely I would definetly need to get her a friend of equal proportions perhaps at her next upgrade! (I got her a small friend once and she seemed haggled by it, and it never grew so I felt bad.)
My mother has a pond and they do sometimes school together usually when feeding ect... but you do see them go off alone at times too. I had two goldfish before Caligo, and they had been together 4+ years before one got a fin tare and got fungus and had to be separated, I could tell they were both sad. Once the sick one was better and they got back together they ran happily into eachother on purpose, playfully.

Psychlist1972

Here's an example, just taken today. The behavior is similar to what I've seen with bluegills and kivvers, so I imagine it is just a social behavior.

FWIW, I'm starting to think the current in the water is too much, since they seem to fight it sometimes and if they stop swimming, they do float back to the right of the tank. Not sure if they are ok with current, prefer current, or prefer still water. My setup is a 55g with an AquaClear 110 filter one one end and an AquaClear 50 powerhead on opposite end, on its lowest setting, pointed at the wall.

BTW, these three all started out the same size, a year ago when my wife rescued them from the stream. The big one is getting really big

Pete

Attached Images

goldfish_school.jpg (130.8 KB, 48 views)

joy1125

beautiful fish ! What a great picture too, all lined up in a row, according to size !

bolivianbaby

They're beautiful fish!

Chrisson

And colours too! the biggest one is all orange then the middle one is in between and the last one is mostly white.

Since goldfish are Barbs/Cyprinids and most of them seem to school I think goldfish may as well. They aren't aggressive to eachother like the redtail shark or the rainbow shark so it may be a good possibility they do.

Now I'm sorta wondering if guppies school! Mine seem to swim together pretty much all the time if they're the same size. Especially my first to guppies they never split and always stayed together.

Psychlist1972

Thanks all. They are self-sorting, which is odd. Must be reading my algorithms books. I guess in a fish tank, it'd be a bubble sort

I think I have the current down to a reasonable spray now that I shifted the powerhead around and pointed it up towards the surface. I just finished planting. The plants were in sad shape when they arrived, due to heat. Hopefully they do ok.

Photos here
Just finished planting

Pete

Borisbbadd

Nice line-up,
how long did you have to sit there with your camera before that happened ?

Psychlist1972

Thanks

I just snapped it. They do that a lot, hence my question. There's only three of them, so there's a pretty good chance that at any point in time, they'll be lined up in order

Pete

gremlin

Beautiful goldies! It looks like you have two females and one male. The females will grow larger than the males, and yes, the smallest is the one I think is a male. Goldies are not technically schooling fish, but they are very social. My goldies will play "tag" with each other. All swimming in a group around and around - the ones in front swimming faster and the ones behind swimming slower. Then when the ones in front swim all the way around until they are about to bump into the ones that were behind, the one that are now in front will speed up and the ones that were going fast will slow down. It is pretty fun to watch. They do spend time doing their own thing, but usually in groups of two or three (or more). Very rarely do I see one all alone for more than a minute.
As for the current, I think they enjoy playing in it. When I fill my pond (from evaporation) I use the hose on full force. It makes quite a stream of bubbles and FAST water. All the fish will line up in the current and swim against it. It's almost like they are body surfing. They don't have to be by the fast stream of water, after all, they have the whole pond to swim in. It's almost like they seek it out. They are strong swimmers, so maybe they enjoy the chance to test their muscles against the stronger current once in a while.
As for the order of line up - The large mostly orange female is probably the alpha fish. The middle orange and white would be the sister or auntie fish. The smaller mostly white is your male. They are probably taking advantage of the slip stream from each other the way bicyclists do when they are on a long ride. If there was no place to get away from the current for a rest, they would take turns 'resting' in each others' "shadow" or slipstream where the current would not be quite as strong. It would be interesting to know if they still show this behavior even without such a strong current in the tank. Who knows, maybe they are "sitting on the couch watching t.v."...we must be a very interesting show for them.

Psychlist1972

@gremlin

Yep, they did that in the old 20g that had an underpowered filter and no powerhead.

These guys (er...guy and two gals) are really bottom dwellers. They have never been up for swimming in the top of the tank. Sometimes they'll take a spin for a few minutes, but then they usually go back to the bottom. Feeding gets them out and about.

The only other fish I have that will sit and stare at me is the Chinese Algae Eater I have in another tank. I think they *are* watching tv, like you said

Pete

gremlin

Mine prefer the middle and bottom of the pond too - unless it is food time. I look forward to pics of their new 55 gal. They will probably love exploring the extra room... Is your CAE a normal colored or a gold? I have one that can't make up it's mind.

Psychlist1972

@gremlin

Tank pics here Just finished planting

Pete