Little goldfish nibbling big goldfish

[buggsy]

Is this normal or does it indicate overcrowding? The little blighters (about 1" long) are tormenting the big ones 6-7" by nibbling at their tails and fins. Do goldfish play games? Our pond is about 200 gallons, we have 5 big fish & maybe 50 little ones. We have plenty of plants, the water is crystal clear, and the water is filtered and circulated to another pond, then back down a little creek, but daytime temps are 90 deg plus. The deepest part of the pond is nearly 2ft. Everything seems fine, except for this bizarre behaviour. Any ideas anyone? Nice to be here by the way, my first posting.

[micky1]

I would also be interested in anyones opinion on this. We have a small goldfish that has eaten the tail of 4 other larger gold fish. (each gold fish put in the tank at separate time so we have only had 2 fish in the tank at the time) the larger goldfish all died. we now only have the small fish as we dont like upsetting our daughter each time he/she eats his friends.

[squareballs]

are your fishes hungry??maybe they taught that the tail of those big goldfish are food..so far i haven't encounter this problem before..

[buggsy]

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think the fish are hungry - it's a behavioural thing I think, need the advice of some fish guru

[micky1]

my fish were not hungry.. I have a 5 year old had to stop her feeding them too much food.

my nippy fish is now an only lonely fish as i cant trust it to have a friend.

[buggsy]

Thanks Micky1, I think that might be the only solution. The situation has worsened, one of the lovely big ones was looking decidely the worse for wear this morning, his tail has been badly nibbled! So we have moved him out & hope he will be OK - he's back with his big buddies. We think he got exhausted trying to keep swimming away from the little fellows (there only seem to be a couple indulging in this cannibalistic behaviour). So we'll take your advice and remove the little troublemakers & put them in an indoor tank, that way they can eat each other if they like! We don't want the other fish picking up on this behaviour either, so it will be good to remove them. Happy New Year to everyone!