Older established goldfish, bullying new fish

[mrsmuddlepies]

Large garden pond, we lost a couple of older fish during the winter. We were left with one large fish approximately 10 years old and some tiny self sown baby fish.
We were worried the old one would be lonely and bought two new ones just before lockdown. Now the old one bullies one of the new ones all the time. He nudges and tries to dominate wherever she/he swims. There are lots of plants.
No where else to separate them. I have read that getting a couple more might stop the old one being quite so territorial.
Any advice?

This sounds like breeding behaviour for this time of year and will go away by itself in a few weeks. If there are plenty of plants they can hide if truely distressed though. You could get a few more to spread out the harassment and they do like living in groups anyway.

Thank you @Dellow . I appreciate your reply. It does seem to have settled down. The older, large established fish seems to like having other fish to swim alongside. The frantic pushing seems to have abated. We have plenty of plants and a bridge from one side of the pond to the other. They all hide under this. Our local garden centre is not currently selling fish. As soon as they do we will buy another pair to join the others.
The new fish have learned to come to the surface when being fed. It is lovely to watch them all together.