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I've got 4 fancy goldfish in my 20gal for a few months now. For the past month, I've been feeding them exclusively on colour bits. This week the strangest behavior, the 2 larger ones (about 3-4" each) started chasing the small ones(about 2-3" and rubbing themselves against the smaller ones. This looks very much like spawning behaviour, but I've seen no eggs.

The constant chasing and rubbing is stressing my small guys out, and has caused one to lose quite a lot of scales at the belly region. Anyone know what's going on? How do I stop this?

sounds like classic spawning behavior. If the aggression/ excitement gets to be too much for the little guys, pretty much the only thing you can do is separate the aggressive ones. Maybe return them to the store?

The rule of thumb for stocking for goldies is approximately 3 gallons of water per inch of fish, so your tank is pretty darn overstocked. Goldfish get huge, and are one of the MESSIEST freshwater fish. Seriously, they're poop machines I would consider getting a larger tank asap if possible. Large rubbermaid containers work just fine in the short run, and are cheap cheap cheap so you could get one of those until you can get a bigger tank.

Otherwise, your best bet may be returning the 2 bigger aggresive ones to the LFS to alleviate the situation for a while. That way your little guys get a break, and they have a little more of the room they deserve to have, so they can grow into big healthy fishies for you

A GREAT goldfish site that I highly recommend to everyone is Goldfish Paradise Check it out!

they might've released their eggs, the small ones bellies are a lot smaller this afternoon than last night. The big guys are still chasing, both small guys have lost a lot of scales at the belly region. Gonna move them to a 10gal and heal it with melafix. What a week for fish keeping..ugh

you're just moving the little guys to the 10 gallon, right? I would also salt up to 0.3% (1 tablespoon per gallon, so 10 tablespoons) in the 10 gallon with the little guys. Helps prevent infection and fungus, as well as replacing lost electrolytes. I know, I know. Trust me on this one, tho, Curvicep:
If you have an overstocked goldie tank, there will be nothing but problems.

Did you check out that site I linked to?

Fancies can get as big as grapefruits....i would give them way more than 3 gals to the inch. Goldfish are carp, they really need ponds.

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

Yeah I know the tank is overstocked, I was keeping the two biggies in the 20gal, than someone gave me the two smaller guys. Didn't want to disappoint so I kept them. I know they are dirty fish, so I change the water twice a week. I'm not against stunted growth as long as they are kept healthy in a clean environment. I've had the two biggies for over 3 years and the two new ones have been with me for 3 months now. I'm still very puzzled by the "breeding" behaviour that started this week though.

Yes the 2 small guys are in the 10 gal hospital tank. I'll look into salting. thanks.