I accidentally trained a fish to stay in the top corner of the tank?

[EvilVegan 17]

Is it bad for a goldfish to constantly bite/eat at bubbles at the surface?

I have a fish who is absolutely terrible at finding food. She's a dragon-eye in a tank with a pearlscale and a lionhead. Any time I use sinking pellets, she blindly snaps at the pellets; but misses 99% of the time (I've only seen her catch one, ever). The other two just eat all the food.

It got so bad that one of them out grew her. She hasn't grown much since I got her about 10 weeks ago (I'm really bad with time estimates), but the pearl scale has gone from about half her size to about 50% bigger.

So I've determined that I need to hand feed her. To do this I just hold a pellet between my fingers and try to drop it in her mouth. But now she spends almost all of her time in the corner I feed her in...

It makes me a little sad, but is it dangerous for her to gulp at bubbles on the surface? The other two have regular swimming patterns, but she spends more than half her time in the corner begging for noms...

[sarajo 566]

Have you watched her from a distance and she's still hanging out at the top corner?

[motherredcap 6,284]

We kind of did this - always fed floating pellets in one corner. Because he is an only, we were able to retrain him using things larger than sinking pellets - peas, egg white. I did feel that the bubble gulping was not great for his health in the long run.

[Helen 8,511]

would you like to post a vid of her behaviour.. it's not uncommon for a fish to perfer being close to the surface at all times. but this is not usual behaviour. this could also be a health problem. how long has she been displaying this behaviour?

also, some fish outgrow others by just pure genetics. it may be that she's not meant to grow very big, which means that her growth rate could be very slow. do you have gravel or bare bottom tank?

sometimes when light is low, fish forage at the bottom and those with difficulty immediately eating, find food later as they forage.

[EvilVegan 17]

She will often travel the length and depth of the tank, just most of the time she stays at the top right where the food is/was.

Gravel bottom with live plants and green algae on the rocks for them to peck at. She'll eat at the algae sometimes.

I'll try to get a video... the camera gives me fits.

The other two spend time all over and come up to eat when I get home, but she's usually already there.

[Banjo123 1]

Ohhhh my goldfish does that and he is an comet hes so cut hes called banjo, i have 9 goldfish and 15 minnnows all 9 goldys live in the house too