Flip-Turn has parasites. They are gross. It looks like he's developed a case of teenage acne. But sadly, this acne will probably kill him if I don't rush out and get him medicine.
Which I will, so I'm not terribly worried.
Regardless, I would have never noticed the skin condition if Flip-Turn hadn't been behaving oddly. He frequently turns his body completely vertical, rotating his small pectoral fins to maintain a rather odd position. The other two smaller fish, Skippy and Shotty (who probably gave him that disease! Accursed carnival fish!), will swim by him, and cautiously (he is still at least four times larger than them) bite at his dots. Flip-Turn will proceed to freak out, but get back into that position within a couple of seconds.
What is odd about this is I believe this is an innate fish behavior. When fish in the ocean wish to get cleaned, they suspend themselves in otherwise unnatural positions and wait for designated cleaning fish (that they would otherwise eat) to clean them of parasites. However, I did not know this behavior was common for goldfish, and considering goldfish have been bred as pets for thousands of years, I wasn't even aware they had set behaviors.
This is rather exciting. For three fish of the same species to differentiate in behaviors to accomplish a goal that, in nature, is spread out among multiple species, is quite fascinating really.
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