Is my comet goldfish getting dumber? Or is he/she spoiled?

[Lil' fishy]

When I first got it, it would eat food from my fingers (i did not train it) However, I did train the bigger comet fish. Now he eats from my finger too. The problem is, the small one (the first to eat from my hand) has sorta stopped eating from my fingers. Like, it would take a quick bite and swim away, looking for other sources of food floating on the surface. The big one would just keep trying to see if my finger still has any food left (it'lljust keep on sucking my finger) what I usually do is make them eat from my fingers, then plop some more food in. So is the smaller one spoiled or what?

On a side note, I wanted to know how to tell a female comet fish from a male one. >< something more obvious perhaps? They always follow me where every I go, so I can't really get a good look of it's side.


Thanks~

 

[THE V]

Different fish can have different feeding patterns. These patterns can also change based upon age. It seems to depend on their genetic background. I've found that common goldfish often will grab and go. While shubs and comets are a mix of grab and go or hang out and gulp. Fancy breeds are usually in the hang out and gulp crowd.

Check out Flaringshutter's Sticky at the top of the forum for good pictures on how to tell goldfish sex.

 

[Inka4040]

Every single one of my fancies is a hang out and gulp kind of fish. All four will hand feed without me ever having had to teach em lol. If yours has already picked up the trick, itll likely do it again in the future. Guess you just can't depend on it doing it every time. (probably has a bit of an independent streak :grinyes: )

 

[ITHURTZ]

They all run away from me, my comet is the closest thing that will come to me. They all let me pet them for a short amount of time though

 

[Lil' fishy]

Thanks for all your replies! I didn't try hand-feeding it for a while, and poof! It started doing it's marvelous trick again!