Male Goldfish is studding: Looking 4 Female

[faulty_damper]

I just found out that my goldfish is male and is sexually mature.  (He is growing white dots on his gills and fins.  It's not ich, btw.)  The only problem is that he is a singleton in the tank and I think he's lonely.  He just lies on the floor of the gravel most of the time now so I think he's depressed.  In humans, monkeys, rats, and many other animals, depression leads to poor immune health.  I think this is why he's been having bouts of fungus on his head.

What should I do?  Do I go to the LFS to pick up a female for him?  He's 3 inches long not including tail so he's kinda big.  The goldfish at the store sell for $6 for a small one.  It's $15 for a large one.  I don't have $15 right now but I'm worried that the $6 ones might be too small and not sexually mature.  I don't want my goldfish to be a pedophile, either.  I want it to be consensual.

[j_menz]

If you get the smaller one, he's much more likely to be a cannibal than a paedophile. Even with the bigger one, that's a real risk, though he might also turn out to be lunch.

[Bob]

November 11, 2012.  Piano forum hits a new point...  Sexual needs of a goldfish.


Actually I've thought that about pets in the past.  If they could all have full lives, have little pet families... But then those children pets would also have to have families and on and on.  

We've got what?  A month and a week left before the end of the world?    Maybe someone will rent a female goldfish for a month or so.  A goldfish prostitute.  Take the male to the store and have him select a b$%@% , um, a new friend.

[faulty_damper]

I measured him and he's actually closer to 4.5 inches in length.  He also appears to go into sexual mode once a month since his white dots only appear for a couple of days every couple of weeks and then go away.

I think maybe just a tank mate would suit him fine.  He's very docile and I can feed him from my hand if I wanted to.  He's a very happy fish otherwise, except for the loneliness.

[Bob]

Male goldfish get white dots when they want to mate?

[faulty_damper]

Yes, this is what I found out.  I thought it was ich, a common parasite that infects fish because it looks similar but that can't be the case since we've had him for years and the life cycle of ich is only a couple of days.  I guess you can think of them as fish pimples.

The white dots appear at regular intervals from my observations.  They appear on the head only and last 4-5 days.  Another indication is that the fins develop numerous bumps along the edges and swell as the white dots appear.  Once the mating period subsides, the white dots and the bumps on the fins go away.

Goldfish reach sexual maturity in 2-3 years of age.  They can live decades under good conditions and grow to be ginormous.  (Wow, 'ginormous' doesn't trip the spell checker so it's a real word... I thought I just made it up.  That's amazing, it even means what I think it means!)  This is somewhat upsetting because one goldfish can outlive your dog or cat.

He doesn't have a name yet but I think I'll call him Bob.  Not after you, but after Spongebob Squarepants.

[Bob]

Not an ich, but an itch?  Haha.

*Bob wonders if faulty_damper's fish has herpes.*

[danny372393673]

Alright faulty Damper.
you're absolutely right the $6 worthy Goldfish would be a small one and this time if you don't have $15 then you can ask some of your friend if anyone of them having a female Goldfish and if she's mature by Sexual then ask him to give it to you and about  money if that person would be your friend then you can give him that money later. But don't try to bring that little one.
jitterbug cell phone

[lloyd_cdb]

They can live decades under good conditions and grow to be ginormous.  (Wow, 'ginormous' doesn't trip the spell checker so it's a real word... I thought I just made it up.  That's amazing, it even means what I think it means!)

The destruction of the English language continues.  2012 saw the addition of"ridic" and "f-bomb" to the dictionary.  Not the actual word it is a substitution for, but the actual phrase "f-bomb". 2011 added "sexting", "facepalm" and "woot".  Although, many of those are coming up on spellcheck. Including spellcheck.  Who'd have thought it was two words...

[faulty_damper]

In an attempt to treat his depression, I placed him into a tank with two koi who are very much larger than Bob.  Unfortunately, one of the koi decided to eat his head.  He's a lionhead goldfish, the ones with a red bulbous cap and a white body.

The cap, known as the "wen", is tissue growth and it feels like jello.  This was the koi's dinner last night.  It ate part of it.  He's not in any pain as this is just excess tissue growth but he loos unsightly.  It'll grow back but in the meantime...

So I placed him back into his solo tank.  He just lays on the gravel floor lethargically.

I just bought a young lionhead goldfish for $3.50 + tax = $3.80.  It is 1.25" long not including tail.  I don't know how well they'll get along since Bob is ginormous at 4.5" long and Sandy is just over an inch.

I don't know the sex of Sandy but it doesn't matter at this time.  If Sandy turns out to be male, there is a slight chance that Bob could be gay and he could be happy in two years time.  But if Sandy is male and not gay, then... he'll have a gay best friend.

[lloyd_cdb]

But if Sandy is male and not gay, then... he'll have a gay best friend.

Awesome best friend to have.  You get great fashion consulting before hot dates.  <--- Stereotype... or reality?

[faulty_damper]

I've been observing the interactions between Bob and Sandy and it appears that fish are a lot like people.

Bob will get up off the gravel, approach her, she'll swim away, he'll pretend he wasn't trying to meet her to avoid embarrassment, and lay back down on the gravel.  This has played out several times already.

[faulty_damper]

Sandy seemed to have done the trick of getting Bob out of his depression.  It's been a day and he's swimming and eating again.  Even though he looks terrible with his wen having been eaten off, he's happy again!