What the heck...

Question
I have a 4-year-old Shubunkin goldfish that is now 9 1/2 inches long. My fish (Cinnamin is blind due to sever cataracts in both of his eyes, and has been living alone for the past 4 years. Recently I rescued a comet goldfish (Sugar) from Wal-Mart where he has become entangled in the filtration system for about a week. After caring for the younger fish, I added him to my larger fishes tank, hoping it would make the younger fish feel more at ease since he had lived with so many other fish, and thinking that it would bring my older fish more company since my fishes vet told me that goldfish are pack animals. Not to mention my older fish obviously wouldn't be able to reject the smaller fish because of his not blackened/injured fin because well, he would be able to see it anyway. Well I was right, they became fast friends, but recently I think they've been getting a little too friendly. They are swimming closer to each other, there is a mysterious white foam on top of the tank, and they just seem very "attracted to each other". So what is wrong with my fish, are they sick or is there a baby spice on the way??? Please help.  

Answer
Hi Kris;

Sounds like a match made in heaven! Cinnamon is probably relying on Sugar to guide her around. Fish have a lateral line that runs the length of their bodies where they sense other fish through their nervous system. You can see it on each one. It's how schooling fishes will detect movement in the school. They feel each other and move together as one big fish that way, turning and darting, stopping and starting.  

The foam is probably just from extra waste in the tank. Goldfish make lots of it, even small ones like Sugar. Make a 25% water change and vacuum the gravel. You might want to check the ammonia and nitrites to be sure they aren't rising. It's very common for the biological system in your filter to be distrupted from the addition of any fish. The result is higher toxins until the beneficial bacteria compenates again by growing more colonies to handle the toxins. You can do the 25% changes daily if necessary until they go down on their own and stay there. It can keep them to a tolerable level for the fish until that happens.

Here is information about breeding goldfish if you want to know more about it;

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/gfish3.htm#bred

Have fun!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins