Goldfish Faceoff?

[theotheragentm]

I have a barrel in the backyard with goldfish in it. Yesterday I saw something for the first time in their behaviour and I don't know how to interpret it. Basically I had two of the goldfish facing opposite directions. They lined up side by side with their fins in a line approximately. So their heads are overlapped side by side. Then they looked like they were headbutting each other by swinging their heads into each other. After that, they swam apart, no chasing.

Does anyone know if this behaviour is normal or what this means?

 

[jsoong]

This is just a guess <never saw behaviour like that in my golds, except during feeding time, when my big pearlscale will head butt everyone else out of the way to get at the food>:

It is mating season, the male will swim next to the females & bump his head on the females' sides. Suppose the 2 are males but each thought the other was female & try to do the mating bump & chase, then they figured out their mistake & swam apart .... ?

 

[theotheragentm]

Not sure. I'll let you know if any more signs appear if eggs appear.