Goldfish Help?

[Shayebri]

My friend recently won three goldfish at a fair. I know. -_- Now she has all of them in the same 2.5 gallon tank. I've never owned a goldfish in my life, and even I know that's sucky. Plus she says the fight for the food. She said "The were attacking the food and tackling each other" or something like that. Plus she saw one "kissing the other ones side" and she described it to me and it sounded like they were biting each others scales, even though accordingto her, "they cant eat each other". Soooo advice for all that. Plus if I need to tell her, how should i, cause shell get pissed off at me.

[homegrown terror]

are the goldfish long-bodied (comets, shubunkins, commons) or short-bodied (ryukin, moor, tosakin etc)? tell her she'll need at least 6-10 gallons PER FISH when they're little, then 10-20 per fish as adults if they're short-bodied, and double those numbers if they're long-bodied. the "kissing" behavior is hostility, probably they know they're not in enough water, and don't like another fish taking up what little space they have. they can't "eat" each other but they can tear off scales which will lead to rampant infections and quick death. the "tackling for food" is normal, goldfish are aggressive eaters, and will constantly vie with each other for space at the surface during feedings. tell her to get a proper tank, or preferably find someone that can take care of them. tell her you'll buy her a betta to go in that 2.5 if she can find the goldfish a new home :)

[thekoimaiden]

Yikes. You sound like you are in a tough situation. I'm going to guess they are single-tail goldfish since those are the ones most commonly won at fairs. You are very right in thinking the tank is terrible for them. But you're going to have to approach this gently. A lot of people don't like hearing that the bowl they spent $30 or $40 isn't good enough. They think money = quality.

That being said, goldfish are social creatures and the "kissing" behavior is probably them establishing a pecking order. The other thing is that goldfish are known to pick on weaker members of the shoal. I've seen goldfish in the store start eating a member that wasn't even dead yet.

Honestly the best thing for these guys is a pond. If kept in a tank it should be at least a 55 gal and then moved up to a 6 foot tank. Some have even outgrown those. Maybe you could offer to take them from her and convince her to get a betta for the tank. Maybe a betta with similar colors?

[Shayebri]

:( Shell never do any of that. I'm not sure what type, I'll upload a pic when I can. Thanks! I'll try my best. :)

Ps. She says they tackle each other for food. Plus they only each need one gallon. She had a betta before and never fed it, so it died. She says she feeds them goldfish pellets and when I asked her how many a day she said he doesn't know. -_-