On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 02:37:25 CST, ~ jan wrote:

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 21:26:05 CST, Cyli wrote:

On Thu, 5 Jul 2007 16:11:38 CST, ~ jan wrote:


My concern is I've heard of goldfish that supposedly suck the eyes off of
telescope goldfish.Ewww Do you think this will be a problem with the
above fish in 1000 gallons of pond? ~ jan

Sounds like a not very urbane urban legend kind of story to me.

I got the original info from Goldfish Connection. I've e-mail them as I
couldn't find the article. So what I do remember is apparently once a fish
gets aggressive like this, they continue to go for the eyes. Personally, if
true, I'm wondering if it isn't a space issue? ~ jan


I can buy it as an aggression issue. But I'd think they'd go for
trailing fins, too, if so. The way it was originally phrased it
sounded as if they liked sucking in and eating the eyeballs for fun.
That didn't sound like fish behaviour to me. Not goldfish. Their
usual aggression seems to be just pushing the other guy out of the
way, sometimes a bit roughly.

And I would have believed attacking the eyes and eating them by some
kinds of fish, like bass or other predatory types in a heartbeat. But
more as a bite and chomp and swallow thing than sucking in.

If you reach them, ask for the evidence? If it's something assumed or
if it's actually been seen and how often and by how reliable
witnesses. And how it's done. Is it one suck and a swallow? I'd
think that'd be a big mouthful for most sizes of goldfish I've seen.
Or is it more a smash and suck a bit at a time? In which case, if
it's not outright aggression, maybe it's that the eye was injured and
the goldfish is eating the dying flesh of it, which is more akin to
taking advantage of an injury than causing it from the word go.
--

r.bc: vixen
Minnow goddess, Speaker to squirrels, willow watcher.
Almost entirely harmless. Really.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli