Jumping goldfish

[EricV]

I have a waterfall with an intermediate small pool (probably holds 20-30 gallons). On of my new fish (Sarasa comet) didn't show up in my pond for several days and I eventually noticed he was in this intermediate pool. He would have had to jump 6-8" vertically to get there. I chased him out and got him flushed back into the main pond.

Yesterday I saw that he was back up in the intermediate pool. That pool is pretty sterile since there is 4,000 GPH flowing through it, but there is water cress in there and I saw him tearing at it yesterday and eating. None of my other fish have shown much interest in making this jump. Should I just leave him? Every time I clean the waterfall filter out (once a month or so) should I scoop him out and see if he'll stay in the lower pond?

Here's a photo showing the pool.

 

[sissy]

I had 2 shubbies that would jump and they went to a new home because of that .The people who took them sad they had problems the first year or 2 and then they just stopped jumping after they got bigger

 

[EricV]

This is a pretty small fish (3-4"), so I can hope he stops. He definitely can't spend the winter there, it freezes solid.

 

[DutchMuch]

they just stopped jumping after they got bigger

to fat to jump lol

 

[cas]

Interesting. I would leave him stay in the upper pond. He can easily follow the current back down to the main pond when he wants to. Of course in the winter since the upper pond freezes, you'll have to intervene.

 

[sissy]

could be the people feed the fish often .

 

[EricV]

could be the people feed the fish often .

Huh? Actually, when this fish is in the main pond, he has never "schooled" with the rest, including the ones added at the same time. He didn't really come to feed while the others are big beggars.

 

[EricV]

Interesting. I would leave him stay in the upper pond. He can easily follow the current back down to the main pond when he wants to. Of course in the winter since the upper pond freezes, you'll have to intervene.

The way the pool is constructed when he gets near the outflow, its quite strong and he naturally struggles like crazy to get back into a calmer part. Unless he get weak, I doubt he'll go back down on his own. And there is enough of a rock wall where he can hide in calm water, I don't think that will happen either. But as long as he's happy with water cress and whatever lives in the roots, it's OK with me.

He's got company too since there always seem to be a few rosy red minnows up there too. Those I don't really care what happens too. I think occasionally one makes it further upstream into the waterfall filter.

 

[sissy]

The 2 I had were never really like the rest of my fish and never hung out with them and never really friendly or would feed from my hand like the others .The people who have the fish seem to feed them often and they have gotten a lot bigger than I thought they would .Tey are around a foot or more long now

 

[Lisak1]

I would leave him be - he marches to his own beat!

 

[CometKeith]

Are you sure it's a "he"? When my fish were spawning I've had females jump more than that to get away from aggressive males.

 

[EricV]

Are you sure it's a "he"? When my fish were spawning I've had females jump more than that to get away from aggressive males.

No idea, really. This is a small fish. I didn't see any indication of chasing. Not to say it couldn't happen, of course.

 

[Faebinder]

Give her a break... leave her in the waterfall. It may be escaping spawning action.

Used to a have a big fat ranchu... I miss her. She used to dive between the irises to run away from the spawning and I always put her back. One day I didn't see her for 5 days... found her dead behind the irises she finally dived in behind ones and was stuck out of water.