Thanks a million to you both for bothering to get back to me, it is most reassuring to get some advice and I hope you will forgive me for imposing on all of you further javascript:smilie('
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The goldfish definitely looks like a Fantail would be the most appropriate name but it is quite a bit bigger than any of those I saw in the pet shop yesterday afternoon. Moreover the one specific difference I noticed was that the Fantails in the pet shop all appeared to have a somewhat more rigid looking edge to the outer 'V' of their rear fin and the gossamer 'fan' like quality of the fin could be seen between this sharp outline, whereas our Goldfish's rear fin is still a vaguely 'V' like shape but is proportionately much bigger and the entire fin ripples in the water without the sharp definition to the outer edge?
But that is by the by. We were getting so upset at how distressed the Black Moor appeared to become from this relentless onslaught from the Goldfish harrying it all around the tank that after a couple of hours we decided to remove the Black Moor from the tank.
It certainly didn't have the feeling of courting behaviour (unless the Goldfish is a dastardly wife beater!) and although it felt like we should be punishing the offender rather than the victim, the only suitable receptacle we have is the relatively small Goldfish bowl that we inherited when we adopted the Goldfish and although the Black Moor is similarly sized, it has smaller fins and it therefore made sense to put the smaller fish in there.
However it wasn't long before it began to appear distressed in the bowl. It was thrashing around in the water (which we had taken from the tank). So not knowing which was the lesser of two evils, after about half an hour I returned the Black Moor to the tank.
Sadly the Goldfish soon started harrassing it again with absolutely no respite. This went on for about four hours until eventually, to my great relief (hoping I could at long last go to bed and sleep in peace without worrying what I might find when I woke up) they seemed to settle down and the Goldfish appeared to have stopped chasing the Black Moor. Yet the moment I made the mistake of switching the light on again, it all started once more. I wasn't sure whether it was because I was scrutinizing their activity much closer than before, but it seemed to have got worse and I was terrified that the Goldfish was trying to damage the Black Moor's fins.
Having finally come across an inhabited fish related chat room (where the subject of conversation was the preservation of fish rather than the best means of skewering them on hooks and destroying them!!). According to one of the suggestions, I tried to give the Black Moor somewhere to hide (the only thing I could think of was a metal cup turned on its side). However it refused to go anyhwere near there.
Someone else suggested using a plate of glass to divide the tank and separate the two fish but despite being a good idea, it wasn't exactly practical at 5am in the morning. In my desperation I found a plastic lid to a storage box, which mercifully was a nice snug fit as a divider down the middle of the tank and at least now I am able to get some shut eye, without worrying about the Black Moor coming to any harm.
My question now (amongst the many less important queries I have about this whole fish keeping malarkey) is that this is a temporary measure. When should I take the divider away and when I do, if the Goldfish should begin driving the poor Moor mad again, at what point do I have to accept that they just might not be compatible?
It is fortunate as I was sorely tempted to get a couple of smaller fish as well as the Black Moor. I chose the Black Moor first and foremost because it was the only other fish in the pet shop of a similar size, although I have to admit that having brought it home and seen it under lights, I am particularly pleased with my choice of perhaps the most interesting looking freshwater fish in the shop, with its huge bug eyes and a belly which appears silver, while the body is mostly gold with what looks like a fish-net stocking stretched over it.
However if the Goldfish is bullying a similar sized fish, imagine how it would have treated a couple of small schnips!!
Although we've had the Moor for less than a day, we have immediately grown attached to it and we would both be upset if it proved that they were permanently incompatible. Besides, apart from getting another fish which is too big for the Goldfish to intimidate, I assume there is no way of knowing if it wouldn't react in a similar fashion to whatever company we introduce into the tank.
Finally (is that a 'phew' I hear!!), despite driving our local pet shop owner potty with all my pesky queries yesterday afternoon, I remain unsure about a number of matters. Most important of which is feeding. It would seem that while the Black Moor is not quite so greedy, both fish have the appearance of being able to eat until they burst. That is to say that despite having fed them heartily they both continue to look for food after it has been finished and the filter pump is turned back on, sucking up rocks and spitting them out, or swallowing any other bits of flotsam and jetsam in the tank.
I am therefore sure it would be easy to overfeed them, especially for a soft touch like me and the missus, as we are both likely to think they look hungry and give them a few more flakes here and there and I wondered if one has to be careful to avoid this.
I also think we might struggle with the regime suggested by the pet shop owner. According to him we should feed the two fish every other day. He suggested that in this way, on the intermediate day, the fish would help to keep their own tank clean by eating everything they can find in the tank, including their own business?
I would be most grateful for any advice you have on this matter and most importantly on what measures I can take to try and assimilate the two fish, rather than return the Black Moor to the pet shop.
I am pleased to say that he was good enough to give me the lowdown on the necessary cleaning rituals. He told me that once a week I should remove ten per cent of the water and replace it with clean water (our water here has a very high limescale content, would there be any benefit using distilled water and how does one obtain large quantities of this for little expense?) and then once a month I need to replace (I can't recall the exact figure, but) something like two thirds or three quarters of the water in the tank, which can apparently be done at the same time as one uses the dedicated tool for cleaning the gravel.
I watched a lad in the shop who showed me how this is done and it looks as though even a dunderhead like myself could manage (by contrast the previous owner of this aquarium said that all I had to do to clean the gravel was to turn upside down the plastic piston type implement that usually pumps air bubbles on to the surface of the water and to stick it under the gravel instead. I guess this might have some effect but the pump isn't nearly powerful enough to be particularly effective.
It's an expensive business this St Francis of Assisi lark. After doing our good deed by adopting the Goldfish in the first place and saving it from a fate worse than death in Clissold Park's pond (well probably a fate which would have been death), I assumed it was our good karma which resulted in us inherting the former owners entire kit and caboodle, including large tank, light, pump, plants, gravel etc. which all looked extremely pretty once it was lit up at night.
My veggie partner thought it perfect timing as a couple of tasty looking fish platters that passed before her nose in recent visits to a couple of restaurants had started her prevaricating over whether she might start eating fish once more and she said that her resolve was restored the second she set eyes on the beautiful specimen of our new Goldfish swimming happily around its tank javascript:smilie('
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Instead of it's former Aussie related moniker 'Dig', we renamed the goldfish 'Ridley' which is the East London road - renowned for it's street market and the 24hr bagel shop that was once a famous haunt of late night/early morning revellers - but at my age I am no longer au fait with such matters and haven't a clue if it continues to attract all the recent ravers, although as far as I am concerned, I know only too well the potential dental damage that can be done by these round runner ring indigestibles, if they are more than a few hours out of the oven and a chiken tikka marsala bagel seemed such a long way from fresh bagels, smoked salmon and cream cheese which are the only possible ingredients to make these chewy excuses for bread palatable where it's former owner lived and from, but there I go on antoher red herring, javascript:smilie('
') which I believe would be incompatible because even I know this is a salt water fish!!! - the east London road where Ridley's former owner lived and from where the fish's saviour had taken it upon himself to walk literally for miles, carrying a bowl full of water and a fish which must have been incredibly tiring (I was knackered and my arms felt like they were dropping off merely carrying this weight out in front the few hundred yards from the park to our home, so to my mind this geezer was the real hero javascript:smilie('
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Meanwhile, before I drive you all barmy with my War and Peace like ramblings, on my visit to the pet shop, in search of an inexpensive pal for Ridley, I was told that it would save us a lot of work cleaning the tank if I invested in a score's worth of filter - 20 pounds or @ 30 us (although the pet shop owner was kind enough not to put too severe a strain on my pocket by letting me get away with the cheapest model which is ideally suited to a slightly smaller tank than ours, however he said that I could get away with it having only one or two fish), then a further ten quid for the Black Moor (because I couldn't get away with one of the three quid little ones as the pet shop owner mentioned the fact that the Ridley might bully a smaller fish - from the off hand way in which he mentioned this potential problem, am I correct in believing that it can be quite a common occurence??), the equivalent of more greenbacks (coins in this country) for some real greenery to go with the plastic stuff we inherited and finally after spending so long in the shop, there was no way I was going to get out of there without letting our very impatient dog join this spending spree party javascript:smilie('
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So to date (and I still have the gravel cleaning gadget to get, plus heaven only knows what else once this fish bug begins to really bite javascript:smilie('
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And before I go and catch some shut eye in the hope of waking to find all my questions have been answered, I shall bore you with one more inconsequential detail. When I arrived home with the Black Moor and we'd introduced it to the tank and Ridley, according to the specific instructions (about equalising the water temp between tank and bag containing the fish), everthing appeared hunky dory for the first few hours as the new arrival found its metaphorical feet and explored its new world.
The lights were on in all the fish tanks in the shop apart from the one containg this particular fish and all its bigger brothers like the koi carp. So it wasn't until it was in the tank at home with the light reflecting off it, that we were able to fully appreciate how nature had waved its wonderfully diverse magic wand over this particular creature.
It was so long ago now, but I think I already gave details of its amazing colouring, with its amazing fishnet stocking type covering. Rona and I kneeled beside the tank on our honkers having an adult debate about giving our new addition a name as we marvelled at the beauty of both animals (before all hell let loose!).
It was a weird coincidence because I must drive/walk down the road around the corner where the pet shop is at least two or three times every single day. However as it occurred to me that since we had renamed the first fish after the road where it had come from, it was worth considering this road as the name for its new mate.
It was very strange that I'd drawn a sudden blank on a road name I must mention several times a day, but as I turned to Ro for some help, as the penny dropped, we were both quite amazed at how incredibly appropriate a name it was for this particular fish, called (not Wanda) but Blackstock!
Please forgive me for prattling on ad infinitum and wasting valuable web space which could be put to a much better purpose than my meandering musings. But please don't let my shaggy fish story prejudice you from putting your minds to better use by providing me with the benefit of your fish related experience, with some solution to my current segregation problem, as I would hate to have to take Blackstock back to the shop for its best interest because there is no other option?
Again I offer you my utmost thanks in advance for taking the time and the trouble to respond, on the off chance you are able to assist
Kind regards
Bernard
