How To Deal Aggressive Goldfishes, Bully Options

[MCheuk]

Bros,

I have a male ranchu who often appears to peck at other ranchus (male and female). I doubt it's for mating purposes. So in my discussions with my regular fish dealer, he suggested taking the aggressive ranchu out of the tank for 15 - 20 secs and replacing him/her back in the tank.

Apparently, the ranchu will be slightly disoriented and acclimatize to the social order of the tank. It's actually worked for me.

I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this problem, or if you have any other suggestions...

Just sharing my experience.

All the best.

[chochiss]

wow....a ranchu pecking another ranchu??? never seen before......my bully experience usually happens to ryukins bullying others!

[blfresh]

I had to put my ryukins in a tank alone because of their bullying. I've never had any other goldfish do that. Has your fish always been this way?

[desireless]

I guess the emphasis is on how Mcheuk dealt with fish bully. Maybe you can try the same method on your ryukins too?

I'm going to try that on my little curious ranchu. It has been actively chasing after other it tank mates. I am glad to have it so active but it seems to be stressing out the others.

[chochiss]

pro-active?

as for ryukins, I did mix them wid other types. generally oranda are pretty ok with them, not ranchu & definitely not pearlscales.......

[whyeme]

I also had a ranchu which is about 1cm larger than my other 2 ranchus and when i first introduced it into the tank it started pecking at the others till even some of the victims scales came off! but fortunately it lasted for only a few hours and now all is fine...phew!

[MCheuk]

Like Desireless, my concern was more on the stress placed on the other fish.

I wonder if this occurs only with male gender?

[The Matrix]

usually the one that bully others are the bigger fish, not necessary the largest. But this behaviour should not last very long. Important is feed enough and try not to put smaller, really much smaller fish, into the same tank.

Mcheuk actually got a good experience in "removing" this behaviour. During water change, regularly remove the fishes from the tank and then put them back after water change. This will work very well.

[kencheng]

I have unfortunately enough had to deal with a rogue ryukin in the past. I have always noticed one of my ryukins to be more agressive then the rest however have never really taken much notice of it as the other ryukins in the tank seemed to deal with it.
I had to put a few other ryukins into the tank with the bully ryukin one night and found one of the new ryukins missing all of it's tail (caudal fin) and another 2 new ryukins had their tail fins badly shreded. Unfortunately I had to sacrifice the bully ryukin for the better of my ryukin population

This post has been edited by kencheng: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 6:30 pm

[pass]

Hey all !

I'm new here . I have been keeping fish for 20- 22 yrs now since my childhood and still learning.

I grew up in the Caribbean and have kept Goldfishes for all of 19yrs. I only recently returned to the fore again ( 11months ) after a five year break from the hobby.

I deal with aggressive fishes by bagging ( isolating ) them for a few minutes in the tank before rejoining them with the others. The minute you see them trying to bully others have them isolated in a bag on the side of the tank.

After their return to the community they will stop from the bullying tendency for a while untill they revert to the re-bullying tactics.

It takes three to five isolations before they stop the behaviour. Basically it just takes some determination from the owner to stop this behaviour in its tracks.

This post has been edited by pass: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:38 pm

[MCheuk]

I had to put my ryukins in a tank alone because of their bullying. I've never had any other goldfish do that. Has your fish always been this way?

Blfresh,

Not sure if you were addressing the question to me... sorry if I didn't reply earlier.

I think the fish has always been like that. Recently a new ranchu joined the tank. This one appears to defend herself by pecking back at the bully - mouth to mouth. I watch them peck each other on the lips! Looks like they're kissing. Quite funny to watch, but I really can't explain this behaviour...

[Grand Pope]

Dug up an old thread as this just happened to me.

I bought a thai ranchu(abt 2.5") and thought of putting it with my jap ranchu(abt 2"). The moment the fella went in, they start to peck each other, taking turns one after another. So i transfer the new thai ranchu into the other tub which consists of bigger ranchus and no pecking whatsoever.

After like half an hour i tried again putting the new fella back with the jap fella and the pecking starts again. Any suggestions as to what i should do to let these 2 aggressive ranchus co-exist in the same tub? Thanks in advance!

This post has been edited by Grand Pope: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 1:29 am