Breeding Goldies

[blinky000]

I've been breeding goldies for over a year now and have been experimenting with which methods turn out to be the most successful and am about to share my most top secret methods with you. Here is everything you would want to know about breeding goldies. If you?re lucky enough to have eggs already, just scroll to the section that you need.

What You?ll Need

Spare tank (5 US gals or more)

Brine shrimp cultivating kit

Aquarium salt

Methylene blue

Sponge filter and pump

Ice cream tub

Silk or real plants

Sexing Fish

The male goldfish will look more streamlined than the female, who will have a rather round looking belly. Also, the females vent (anus) will stick out whereas the males will not (although, as I have found, this method is not 100% correct but about 1% of the time, you?ll find a male with some identity issues!). Around breeding time, the males will get a line of spots on the first bone of the pectoral fin and gill covers like this:

Making Goldies Spawn

This is one of the most challenging parts of breeding goldfish. Some of the most successful ways to trigger spawning is to lower the temperature of your tank to about 64-68f for about 1-2 weeks. The tank needs to have real or silk plants in so the female has something soft to get bashed into to lay her eggs in. During this cold period, feed your fish lots of high protein meals (tubifex etc) and feed often. This will mean you have to do more regular water changes due to more waste being produced which will help with spawning induction. By this time, the female should look very round with eggs and fat. Then gradually warm the tank up to about 75-78?f over the space of a few days.

During Spawning

While your fish are spawning, as the males follow the female constantly with their head up her backside she may get a bit battered, especially if your female is breed that tends to waddle like a pearlscale and your male is something like a common or shubunkin. If she gets too beaten up, take her out. If you're new to breeding, take out the plants with the eggs on and put them in a spare tank and wait for them to hatch. If you are very familiar with breeding and handling you fish, I would recommend hand spawning. Take the male(s) doing the chasing and put them into an ice cream tub or something like that filled with tank water. Gently squeeze the abdomen down to the vent. You should be able to see milt coming out. If it is a very fertile male, the water will be quite cloudy after a hand spawning session. Release the male back into the tank and take the female. Often, you just holding the female and her wriggling makes the eggs come out, if not, use the same method as you did for the male, only more gentle and as soon as the eggs come out, swirl them around with her tail to separate them as if they stick together, they will not develop properly. PLEASE DO NOT HAND SPAWN IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF YOUR ABILITIES OR ATTEMPT TO HAND SPAWN ANY FISH AT ANY TIME OTHER THAN DURING OR SHORTLY AFTER NATURAL SPAWNING. Squeezing a female while she is still very full of eggs can rupture the ovaries and cause potentially fatal internal damage. This is why it is best to hand spawn shortly after she has released most of her eggs during the natural spawning.

Care of Eggs

Once you have your tub of eggs, sink it in another tank of cycled water about (not stolen from another tank as this increases the chances of pathogens being spread onto the fry). The tank should only be 6? deep at this point and should be bare bottom. It should also have a sponge filter installed. Do not wipe off the algae from the inside of the tank as this is a good natural food for the fry. Put the temperature up to about 78?f for optimal growth (if the tank is less than 5 US gals, don?t bother with a heater, it?ll just cook your eggs. Place in a warm room instead). I have found that adding aquarium salt to the fry tank at 0.3% concentration avoids problems such as flukes and should always be present with the fry at this concentration until the 4 month stage where they should be weaned off the salt gradually. Methylene blue is also useful for preventing fungus on small fry and eggs. Add some to the tank until the water is a ?Windex? blue. After a few days, you should be able to see little black dots inside the egg. At about day 5, the fry will move around inside the eggs occasionally. This should be around the time that they hatch. This is also the time to start cultivating baby brine shrimp. Kits can be easily obtained at you local pet store and aren?t too expensive or tricky to get going. I find other foods don?t kick start the growth of the fry and aren?t worth the bother.

Caring for the Fry

For the first couple of days after they hatch, the fry will hang off the plants of side of the tank. Do not feed them at this stage as they are re-absorbing their egg sacks. When they are free swimming, begin feeding small amounts of baby brine shrimp. Put in as many as the fry will eat in about 1-2 hours, four times per day. The fry will begin to look like fish in about 1-2 weeks. Do not do any water changes until the fry are about a month old and only do so very carefully with an air-line tube from the pump. However, you may need to get rid of excess food or dead fry from the bottom of the tank so a turkey baster can be a handy tool. At this stage, add soaked, crushed pellets to the diet. If there are any fry that are particularly small or particularly big, they should be separated from the rest of the group. At two months the fry should be getting big quickly so wean them off the baby brine shrimp as it can get costly when the fry are so big that they merely inhale the creatures! At three months, the fry should be changing colour and be about 1.5? big. For the next couple of months feed regularly, change the water regularly and look for homes for your babies!

If you do have any problems breeding, of course feel free to ask

[Guest blackmoore]

should the male and female be kept together whilst the are being conditioned, by conditioned i mean fed lots and making female fill with eggs? or introduce them together when ready?

should they be conditioned in the warmer temperature or the cold temperature?

[maniacholic]

I find it better to seperate first then wait around like 1 to 2 days after the eggs developed in the female then releasing her with the male so you would probly get the months supply of developing eggs instead of mine having sex in a one week interval. Too much work in finding 2 different tanks just for breeding.

[eather.hey]

I think this should be pinned up top! Nice work girl!

[bling101]

i agree to this is a top notch topis and should be pinned i mite have a go at breeding my goldys since youve filled me with abishion of bieng a dady lol

[maniacholic]

being a daddy is always okay with me as long as you dont say the "m" word

jk jk

[blinky000]

[maniacholic]

I can't believe this has'nt been pinned yet...

[ranchu_man]

Excellent article.. If no brine shrimp is available, can the frys be fed with cooked egg yolk alone until say a week or so before fedding them with finely grounded pallets? I am having hundreds of Ranchu frys which are newly hatched and feeding them with egg yolk and some grounded pallets not not sure whether they can survive. Brine shrimp is not available at all in our area.

[blinky000]

yeah, egg is fine. bit messy though. i find baby food works well if theres no brine shrimp around.

[Guest rosedawson318]

java script:emoticon(':newfish')

smilie

I dont exactly know how to tell females from males still!!

and can you breed black moores with gold fish?

Edited December 6, 2004 by rosedawson318

[blinky000]

yeah. you get different varieties by breeding different fish. thats how they all came about! theyll be very interesting looking! ive got a few pearscale/moors and shub/pearscales. beautiful little things.

[maniacholic]

congrats "pinned worthy" not you but the article

BTW: NICE comic on the signature

Edited December 8, 2004 by maniacholic

[blinky000]

lol! thanks

[Guest rosedawson318]

[mailboxck]

Which ones are fertilized? The transparent ones or the white ones? What else should i have in the tub besides the filter?

How long should i wait?

[coyote ugly]

The transparent eggs are the ones that are fertilized and the white ones are not so you have to take those out because fungus will grow eventually.Within 3~7 days the eggs will hatch.By tomorrow I'm sure you could see black dots(eyes)forming inside the egg. Be careful with the filter coz they might get sucked up or if the flow of the water is too strong they might end up with broken backs or so I was told

Good Luck Mailboxck!!!Post pics soon,okay?

Edited January 9, 2005 by coyote ugly

[mailboxck]

Ok thanks! I sure do hope they're ok. I am really a newbie and i paniced when i saw them this morning and immediately placed them in a small tub. I had to hand pick some of them out of the filter because some got sucked up. I hope i get babies soon. Pray pray!

[Guest nz_turtle_girl]

woops wernt we spose to move the little fish- even if they looked soo crowded in there 40 gal, swimming in nee deep algy, breathing in 3 week old poop of there parents will they die? i feel so stupid

[coyote ugly]

You should separate them with their parents.Chances are they will get eaten

[Black Moorio]

I have a couple questions.

~Is there an age limit to breeding? I have a one year old oranda (male i think) and an eggfish not even a year (female i think) and a black moor younger than the eggfish. (male i think)

~Can the babbies grow in a 2.5 gallon tank then be moved to a ten gallon?

~Is this write?

a. Wait until they are ready to breed

b. Place male in the ice cram tub with silk plants

c. Remove male once water is spawned.

d. Place female, remove male

e. One eggs form, place tub in other tank.

Is that all right?

[maniacholic]

...PLEASE DO NOT HAND SPAWN IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF YOUR ABILITIES OR ATTEMPT TO HAND SPAWN ANY FISH AT ANY TIME OTHER THAN DURING OR SHORTLY AFTER NATURAL SPAWNING...

BTW I forgot to mention a LONNNNG while ago, if the female is ready, just holding her is enough for eggs to spray out

[Guest cutiepie]

hello,

Just wanna ask you what kind of sponge filter should I get for my fry?

My local petholder told me that I don't need a sponge filter ,because it would sucked al the fry in it.

Please help.........

[Guest alique89]

Hi! I'm new to all of this, but now since i know i have fertial gold fish. I like to know more is there any films or good books you could suggest?

[Guest Guppy_Girl]

CutiePie- I don't think that a sponge filter would be too strong for your fry. I used a sponge filter for Dwarf Seahorses which don't swim AT ALL and they did fine. I really do hope that you post pix soon everybody!!