Goldfish Mating ?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

We have a 4ft cold water tank, we have 2 large goldfish (12cm+) and 8 small (5cm+) goldfish.
We have had them all since roughly fathers day but the last couple of days i have noticed the larger 2 have been displaying some different behavior.

1. The are randomly just swimming very close to each other for small periods of time, side by side.
2. They chase & nudge each other
3. They both seem to 'twist' in the water while darting around for a short period then go back to normal.

I have looked briefly at google which suggests they could be ready to mate and that the female would lay eggs into the water and the male would fertilise them.
I can't see anything in the water, does it sound like they 'could' be ready to mate?

If they do then what do we do with the eggs? Do i let nature take it's course and if they get eaten they get eaten? Do i spend $$ and buy one of those net things to float in the tank?

[skybie]

they sound like theyre fighting hun, possibly because mating isnt far off, but yes they do lay eggs so they dont actually mate

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Thanks hun, the weird part is when they are not fussing around twisting in the water and nudging each other they are side by side swimming very close together.
Hmm could be interesting, am checking e-bay for the egg hatchery things JIC

[skybie]

yeh one fish will be trying to say to the other fish im the boss when they swim next to each other. some of my fish have long feeler arms and its hilarious when they fight each other. they will be fine once they sort out their issues

[Leopard]

What we did was bought a 20cm tank with a temperature monitor and transferred the eggs into there. Goldfish are notorious for eating their eggs and babies!