Wild Goldfish

[dogartist]

I have 2 new common Goldfish. They are so wild acting they are the only ones in my 20gal cycled tank. I'm working on the food signal and can't even get them out of the corner. I'm real easy with them ..

My lovely Banded Gouramis are so tame . The male will let me hold him in my fingers. He lays and his side and curls around my little finger..He's just beautiful .The Opaline Gourami will reach up and touch my index finger with one of his fingers..Sometimes he lets me touch him.. He plays hard to get.. Better then surreal...I had no ideal fish could be so sweet and tame.

I have seen some very tame Goldfish and it's just the two of them.
Need some tips how to start..

[Menagerie]

I'm not that personal with my fish I'm not sure if it's me--or the fish!
I would suggest patience. How long have you had the goldfish?

[William]

All my Betta's will lay in my hands when I'm working in their tanks. Its an awesome feeling isn't it?

To have fish that place so much trust in you that they place themselves in an unnatural, vunerable position.


Congrats on all your taming! I'm sure your goldies will come around with time!

Just feed them, and with each feeding move your hands slowly closer until your hands are in the water while they feed, then work from there

[dogartist]

4 days now.. started bonding with food right off.

[jsoong]

I started by feeding them at the same spot every time. After a while, they'll see me coming & swim right up to the surface, waiting for a treat.

Next, I put something irresitable on my finger tip & put it in the water (chopped shrimp is good, mine loves peas). So far I've got mine to eat right out of my hand but that's after several months.

Be patient, it takes a while for a new pet to get used to new digs & feel comfortable. Then you can start the taming process. Since goldies live for such a long time, it is worthwhile to take the time to tame then as pets.

[ChileRelleno]

Alot of our fish eat out of our hands. Our female bettas will actually jump 2-3 inches to take food out of hands when presented its sooo much fun when your fish interact with you.

[ChileRelleno]

My Dwarf Gourami will eat out my hand or if I hold some morsel a inch or so above the water he'll spit at it like a archerfish .

[ChileRelleno]

Please delete.
This is bugging me... Back click/refresh=double-post

[Allivymar]

*nods and agrees*

Food is the key to a fishie's heart *grin*

Try giving them a signal before you feed them. My ex had a 90g salt tank he was cycling with mollies ages ago. He would always peer into the tank to check on the fish before he fed them. They came to take that as a signal they were going to be fed, and would come zipping over to any face that went up close to the tank. So of course I used to play tag with them. I'd put my face close to one side and they'd come zipping over, then I'd run to the other side and "about face!"; they come zipping towards the other side [acronym:61e86a17d7="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:61e86a17d7]

My current angels and clown loaches eat out of our hands. When we feed em bloodworms, we hold the bloodworms between our fingers. The angels jostle for position, the clowns actually rub against our hands, and in the angelfish fry tank, the lil ones swim THRU our hands. Too cute.

I'd hold off on feeding them for a day or 2 so they're a little hungry. Then when you feed them, look into the tank first, drop the food in and stay there. Let them associate your presence with food. That won't happen overnight, so I'd try skipping every other day (they won't starve - promise!), so their appetite is whetted beforehand.

And just to be thorough, what are the parameters, since you mentioned they're in a cycling tank.
This is one of the lil guys being all bold; his dad's big fat head is near the bottom of the pic: