What does it mean when goldfish are doing what looks like following eachother and smelling eachothers butts?

Question

I have 11 other animals in the tank too; 4 frogs, 3 goldfish, 4 other types of fish. How do I keep the eggs safe?

what if i cant find them? About how big will they be?

Answer 1

First off, it doesn't mean she is with eggs. Do you know if she is a female and he is a male for sure? If she is not showing eggs she isn't full of eggs (you can see them thru her belly scales) If she is not over 3 years old, she will not be with eggs.

Goldfish have strange behaviors and play follow the learder a lot. A male will not "smell" a female he will push her into the wall or an object forcing the eggs from her.

You will know and see the eggs over 300 of them at one time.

If you are sure you have a male and female and she does have eggs, you will want to put them into a breeders net to hatch. Do not take them out of the water where air can hit them.

Good luck

Answer 2

It usually means a male is following a female and trying to get her to lay eggs.

ADDITION: You could set up a separate tank of spawning, or to move the eggs or adults once they've been laid. You can make a spawning mop out of yarn for them to lay the eggs on - the eggs will stick to the pieces of yarn. See these links for how to make and place them: http://www.petfish.net/articles/Killifish/mop.php , http://www.djramsey.com/tropfish/spawning_mops.htm The mops will take the place of plants where the fish would usually lay the eggs.


ADDITION 2: You'll notice the eggs! They may be small, but there are usually a lot of them, and they're adhesive and will stick to anything they're laid on. Plus, they swell after laying, so the size will increase a little in time. Here's a photo with just a few: http://www.shisso.org/archives/goldfisheggs.jpg
http://hometown.aol.com/_ht_a/kmam1/MyPond/InformationonFry.html

Answer 3

Maybe it wants to mate.If it does,you may want to seperate them from the others so that they can lay their eggs without being disturb and after that,put the goldfish back to the aquarium so that they will not eat the eggs.

Answer 4

the male (the one smelling the anal fin ["butt"] chases the female until she get tired and finally gives in and releases her eggs. then the male will spray sperm to ferlized the eggs. fertilized eggs are CLEAR and dont have anything on them. if you dont want them to be eaten place them in a seperate tank with the smae water temp. and stuff.
mating behavior happens usually when the tanks is clean/healthy and warmer than usual (its a good sign) but if it seems to be too much then it can STRESS the female . if you feel that the female is getting stressed then seperate them by temporary putting the male into a breeder net

Answer 5

do quarantine both fishes to another tank. and put your eyes on the tank everyday to ensure that u take out the papa and mama after u see the egg! as they will eat the egg..

Answer 6

Maybe the male is trying to get the female to lay eggs.

~ZTM

Answer 7

i would guess, never having been told BY the goldfish, it means they are very, VERY bored, and their butts must smell.......good? bad? like food?

Answer 8

All animals do that even fish.

Answer 9

mating season i guess

Answer 10

having foreplay, baby.