Animal Behaviour

Yesterday morning I was pretty sure the goldfish were in spawning mode. The remaining adult male fish was chasing one of the females around persistently and aggressively. He's a bit of a bully anyway, but that normally comes out at mealtimes when he will attempt to drive the other adult fish away from whatever food I may have put in the pond; similar behaviour early on Spring or Summer days is likely to be related to spawning, and sure enough the female fish looked fat and full of eggs. 

We've already noted what bad parents goldfish are: they view both eggs and fry as extra protein and will gaily eat them if they notice them around, which is why my two juvenile fish have done pretty well to survive to the point that they are too big for their parents to gobble up. I gather the reason why some goldfish go black until they are big enough not to be treated as a foodstuff by the adults is that it makes them harder to spot. But goldfish romance leaves much to be desired, too. If females have eggs to lay, the males will chase them around the pond or tank to 'encourage' them to do so, and this encouragement is quite rough. The females will be bumped and butted, knocked against surfaces, nipped, and chased to exhaustion before they finally lay their eggs ready for the males to fertilise. Presumably the reason why the female doesn't just save herself a lot of trouble by laying as soon as any male fish show an interest, is that a male capable of chasing her around for hours is likely to make a genetically sounder mate. I don't think the males get much out of the process either, as they always seem pretty worn out after it's all over too.

Just before heading down to the church, I went back outside to see if I could take a photo of the fish, but they were all calm by then so I imagined the eggs must have been laid, not that I can see them anywhere. In the process I managed to sit straight in a pool of pigeon guano on the surround of the pond, even though I'd noticed it earlier on. The natural world had its revenge.