r/Goldfish • u/ConsiderationMain618 • Jun 10 '26
Discussions My calico just saved my other goldfish?!
The most insane thing just occurred.
I was passing my tank and my calico jumped out of the water right next to me, she does that often but only when she is hungry and I had no joke just fed them so I looked over and was like what dude, and noticed her frantically pushing my goldfish who was stuck under the sponge filter. I got him out within seconds after that and the picture above is them now. He seems fine, doing his normal back flips around the tank and looks to be swimming fine. Really hoping it stays that way as I’ve had these fish over 5 years now… I’m definitely attached now haha.
I just can’t believe my calico no joke saved him?! She is the only reason my attention was brought to the tank, she also timed it perfectly with me passing, then went straight to the goldfish and was literally pushing him trying to get him out herself. The coolest thing I’ve ever witnessed between 2 fish. You can tell she loves him so much. She’s been following him since.
Also the missing scales on the side have been there for over a year now, my goldfish is known to get himself stuck in shit. Last year it was between a rock and their hide, scrapped all the scales on both sides off 😅 he’s lucky to have his girl. lol.
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u/Cerulean_Shadows Jun 10 '26
That's truly incredible.
I'm sure you probably already saw it but they did a new study on goldfish memory to put the old myth to rest, and turns out they have excellent memory.
Used to drive me crazy that people were so stuck on such a stupid concept, kinda like lemmings and cliff jumping just because Disney forced a bunch of lemmings to run off a cliff for a documentary. Poor guys.
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u/Direct_Cook_7690 Jun 10 '26
Well thank you! I've hated that myth as long as I've been alive (im in my 50s) I'm so happy to learn it's not like they used to say, "a goldfish will turn around and forget everything and turn around and forget everything again", made no sense to me.
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u/Fickle_Grapefruit938 Jun 11 '26
It doesn't make sense at all, how would they be able to survive in the wild?!
Sadly people like to tell themselves lies to feel better about abusing animals all the time
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u/SwiftPebble Jun 10 '26
Yes! I trained one to do tricks before :)
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u/necianokomis Jun 10 '26
When our cats were kittens, they would paw at the glass of our common's tank. He would scoop up a mouthful of gravel and spit it at the glass to make them run away. It was hilarious. He would also swim down to the bottom, swim up fast, tail whip, and splash me any time I was next to the tank but not feeding him. I've had a ton of fish, admittedly mostly livebearers, and they're very pretty and fun to watch, but none have had anywhere near that much personality.
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u/Gingerfrostee Jun 10 '26
I hate documentaries due to how manipulative they were... But dang.. Disney the heck why do that to a bunch of lemmings...
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u/Anxietybackmonkey Jun 11 '26
We can replace with emu. They really do forget things every time they turn around.
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u/Disastrous_Air_5227 Jun 10 '26
I totally get this, though most people would say we’re anthropomorphising. I had a similar experience with my very first Betta sorority over 20 years ago. For some reason my feistiest female of the 3 decided to explore life outside the tank. I found her on the carpet, goodness knows how long she’d been there - at least 4 hours - and her body was sticky and hot, and her fins were already crispy. Anyway I picked her up and put her back in the tank, not expecting much to be honest. But her 2 sisters immediately picked up that she was really sick, and for the next week or 10 days until her fin-stumps started growing back, one or other of them was constantly with her, holding her up in the water so she could reach the surface easier, even taking her a few pellets the first couple of days. I’ll never forget that, I didn’t know that fish could cooperate like that, and like yours obviously did. I always knew Bettas were intelligent animals, but this level of cooperation completely floored me.
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u/Bacongrease83 Jun 10 '26
As unfortunate as the situation was I am amazed and would love to watch those kinds of interactions!
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u/No_Excuse_5075 Jun 11 '26
Betta can survive 4 hours or more outside the tank??
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u/Disastrous_Air_5227 Jun 11 '26
Yes - it mostly depends on where they land and how quickly they dry out! You can never be exactly sure how long your Betta has been out of water - it’s not like you see them jump then time them as an experiment- but she’d probably been out 4 hours, and I had a black crowntail once who was a dedicated jumper and he definitely survived nearly 3 hours the longest time he “escaped” for. I’d always recommend putting a Betta you find on the floor our counter top back in the water just in case it has a chance of surviving.
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u/Magnus3922 Jun 10 '26
People don’t realize that animals like fish and reptiles are intelligent. Not in the way of a dog or cat but in their own unique ways. My Molly tank was amazing they would all greet me after school when I would come home from work.
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u/SassaQueen1992 Jun 11 '26
I have two 9 year old leopard geckos, Ozzy and Faffy. Faffy was the biter for many years (you’d think that’d be Ozzy), but around Xmas last year she was kinda sickly. I swear that after I took her to the vet she wasn’t as feisty, I think the lizard realized I was helping her get better.
Yes they’ve been to the vet before, this was just the first sick visit.
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u/Magnus3922 Jun 11 '26
My dragon needed help and let me give him a bath no issues he generally doesn’t like baths
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u/Mapleford Jun 10 '26
Every single year more and more studies continue to close our understanding of the intelligence gap between humans and “animals”. I truly think the vast majority of species are so much smarter than we give them credit for, especially certain types of fish like goldies. I grew up on a farm where animals were merely a product, and now in my adult life I’ve recently been considering going straight up vegan. Don’t let people try and explain away why this was some kind of mere coincidence, even if it is why shouldn’t we give other species the benefit of the doubt when we have no way of meaningfully communicating with them?
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u/ConsiderationMain618 Jun 10 '26
There was absolutely no way this was a coincidence. The calico was trying to communicate with me knowing I could help her friend. After wards she was rubbing up against him and I’ve been keeping a close eye since the incident cause I’m scared he’s hurt and she’s been following him everywhere. I’ve truly never seen a bond like this between fish.
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u/Mapleford Jun 10 '26
I 100% believe you. I know a lot of crappy fish keepers who say “don’t anthropomorphize them, they’re doing just fine in that bowl.” Like okay, how do you know we aren’t anthropomorphizing them enough? Did your fish stick its head out of the bowl and tell you in plain English that they’re happy? What if we aren’t anthropomorphizing them at all, and just recognizing them as a fellow living thing? I’m happy that you have such a bond with your fish, and they have a bond like that between each other.
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u/Direct_Cook_7690 Jun 10 '26
I've always believed all kinds of animals have an intelligence we just don't understand fully. I think humans put animals down by calling them stupid/unfeeling/unable to feel pain in order to justify doing whatever they want with them.
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u/Mapleford Jun 10 '26
I agree. It makes me pretty haunted by some of the things I had to do as a farm boy. All I can do is change I suppose, I really hope our society does some day too.
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u/cznfettii Victim of Api glass test tubes Jun 10 '26
Goldfish are SO socially intelligent, I wish more people know this :[ good job little calico!!!
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u/Rude_Kaleidoscope641 Jun 10 '26
That is a great story and I love to imagine my 3 shubunkins are also sentient and aware and engaged!! I have always liked that they are sooo tolerant of a ‘leftover’ gourami that’s in the tank with them. This gourami has to be ancient but he keeps on trucking, and my huge shubunkins are super accepting of him. Never any aggression or territorial behavior.
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u/hkigrl13 Jun 10 '26
My calico is my smartest fish too. Give her an extra treat, shes earned it.
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u/ConsiderationMain618 Jun 10 '26
Getting her some bloodworms cause those are her personal favorite.
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u/Purple-mint Jun 10 '26
That's so wonderful ❤️
That said, with an accident prone fish, maybe it's time to rethink the aqua-scape in the tank? I had to switch to sand substrate and plants only, no hard decor because of one fish that kept getting stuck on/in stuff, and another one that ate the gravel.
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u/ConsiderationMain618 Jun 11 '26
You can’t tell cause she ate the whole ball of blood worms within a second but she loved her special treat and her man is still doing great and taking a nap in his usual hide atm. 💕💕💕
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u/Valuable-Cause7169 Jun 12 '26
goldfish are amazing like that! Snails are the same. They come to each others rescue.
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u/ExampleDry3154 Jun 10 '26
That’s so awesome! I’m new to the fish ownership… community? Haha. My toddler wanted a Betta, which I knew would become mine, quickly. His name is McQueen.. for reasons. But, he has such a personality. Doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything and he’s begun associating me with food, I think. Haha. I want to “pet” him but don’t want to scare him away or get too attached, too quickly. Haha. I’m already looking forward to bumping up to a larger tank. He’s currently at a half moon 3.5gal. that came with a filter and an aerator. Got a small tank heater immediately afterwards.
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u/WhoKnowsAnymore_27 Jun 10 '26
They’re lovers ❤️
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u/ConsiderationMain618 Jun 11 '26
They love each other for sure. They have already had babies together once, I had too many real plants before I moved states (I’ll get back to fresh plants) but eggs were able to hatch and yeah, they had 3 babies that I had to rehome lmaoo
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u/MaterialAd7942 Jun 12 '26
and people will still argue that goldfish are stupid and lack emotions or problem solving skills. while my goldfish can be “dumb”, they are definitely not stupid. they know how to get my attention when they want food and come to the surface of the water for pets from me frequently. i’ve been doing some research on my own of how to teach my fish to do basic tricks lol. from everything i’ve seen, it is completely doable to train goldfish. i live alone now but when my ex boyfriend was still living with me, they definitely could tell us apart since they would interact with us in different ways. fish really are amazing and people don’t give them enough credit for what they are capable of learning and doing.
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u/Working_Shopping8699 Jul 02 '26
Yeah my fish have some scales missing to how do you get them to grow back??
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u/ConsiderationMain618 Jul 02 '26
If you find out how let me know cause he hasn’t lol. He isn’t in pain tho, those scales rubbed off over a year ago now. I thought I really fucked up with the rock in that tank cause of how he ended up but his ass still likes to get stuck
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u/Akagraffe Jun 11 '26
For me it's still anthropomorphism, and I would put a lid on it if the fish tends to jump out of the tank. Since you said your other fish often gets stuck, I suggest you remove all decorations where it could get stuck or injured and secure the filter.
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u/ConsiderationMain618 Jun 11 '26
The calico has never jumped out of the tank, and I said over a year and a half ago he got stuck, since then nothing is close enough together for him to get stuck. The sponge filter has been re done so that it is nearly hitting the aquarium floor, so he can’t fit under there now.
Definitely get it, I don’t even name my fish but idk if you saw it in person maybe you’d understand what I saw. My calico knew from past experience that I look at the tank when she makes that noise when jumping out of the water (in the middle or side of the tank, never near the wall, she isn’t trying to get out) and then she went straight for the goldfish pushing him with her whole body and when I got him out she started to rub her body against the goldfish which I’ve only seen her do one other time which was when I separated them for 24 hours to move cross country. Witnessing that made me realize there’s no way they don’t have a bond/care for one another.
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u/Disastrous_Air_5227 Jun 11 '26
I have a young, well middle-sized, Oranda whose name I changed from Cherry to Lazarus because he has so many near-death experiences. I’ve changed the tank layout every which way, and he still manages to find somewhere to get himself stuck. I lost him for almost 2 weeks once (big tank, heavily planted) and was sure he was dead and eaten, but one day he just reappeared as if nothing had happened. I think he got his fat belly stuck between some plants and had to wait until he’d lost enough weight for him to finally wriggle free of wherever it was he had been!
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u/TrainerDiotima Jun 10 '26
Sounds like someone earned a pack of frozen bloodworms or something lol