Comet Goldfish Nipping At Bigger Fantails

[Guest s0nginmyheart]

Hi everyone,

I have a 46 gallon tank that has two large fantails (one male and one female) and some clean up crew (cory cats, oto, etc)... anyway. I introduced a comet goldfish about a week ago and I started noticing recently that it would nip at the fantails fins. I don't think it's a breeding behavior because the comet does this to the male as well. I am just wondering if anybody has any insight on this type of behavior... I don't want anything happening to the fantails which I've had for almost two years now. Any help is most appreciated!

Thanks in advance~

[scaring]

Hi,

I looked into that same thing a while back, only I wanted to add Fantails to my Comet tank. I was warned off. I was told that comets will nip the fins of slower fish. He might need to go into another tank. Comets can get agressive. Mine will kill anything I try to add in with him now.

Hope this helps.

[Acupunk]

Part of your problem may be overcrowding. Each of your fancy goldfish requires 10 gallons to be comfortable and the comet requires 20. You don't mention how many cory cats, etc. you have -- they need to be figured into the equation as well. Fish are more likely to be aggressive toward one another if they lack sufficient space. Generally fancy goldfish and comets are not good tankmates -- the comets are much faster swimmers so they tend to dominate at mealtime and are likely to find the fantails' fins just too tempting to not nip. My recommendation would be to return the comet to the store and get another fantail.