Fish Psychology, how to tame a bully?

Question

Well, I've came across my first aggressive fancy goldfish, have never had one before. He is is a Calico Ryukin and is constantly picking on my pearlscale and one of my orandas.

At first i tried to stress him a little by chasing him with my 18" plastic aquarium tongs and would push him away from the fish he was picking on. This seemed to curb him for a couple hours. But he eventually went back to his old habits. So i yanked him out and tossed him in with a larger common goldfish to keep him in his place until i decide what to do with him. (the comet wont attack him first, but will put him in his place fairly quickly each time he tries to bully the comet)

I've had him awhile now, he's always been a little rowdy, but use to just chase a second then go back to rooting in the sand for food, but today he was flat out chasing them non stop. Was chasing the oranda so bad the oranda some how ended up flipped over for a sec.

Think letting the comet whoop on him awhile will curb his interest in picking on those other two fish, or should i start seeing which pet shop would do a trade? This is pretty odd for me in goldfish behavior, every one I've had up till now has been nice and friendly. And he's not even close to being the biggest fish in the tank.

Before I get the common, tank size/fish count coments, it's a 90 gallon with 4 fish. The mean Ryukin's penalty box is a 35 gallon with just him and the comet. I use that tank to house new fish for a couple weeks and use the comet to keep that tank cycled. When the comet gets too big, he will be sent to a pond owner and I'll go rescue another feeder fish.

Answer 1

There's no way to change the fishes behavior. You might want to start thinking about a trade in deal. Keeping him with a tougher fish might quiet him down for the moment but he'll be right back to his old habits as soon as he's back w/ the others. Good luck

Answer 2

If you have plants and decorations in your aquarium, you can try re-arranging them every now and then. All fish are territorial, and if you change their territory around it should curb aggressiveness until they all settle down in new territories, perhaps the fish he is attacking dont have their own territory , But by re-arranging it can give them a chance to have their own area, so they dont have to stray into the aggressive fish's territory and get attacked.

Answer 3

well its good to exchange the fish....