Breeding Goldies

[Guest PondLover]

Hi All

I am new to this site and have enjoyed reading your very informative articles. I have about 50 goldfish in two large ponds that have been breeding for a couple of years. The fry are visible in the shallow waters each summer, but unless they are hiding in the slime at the bottom of the pond for a year at a time, I dont see any new smaller fish joining the population. I suspected they were being eaten by the other fish in the pond, so went on a rescue mission and caught them in a small sieve and transferred them to a tank inside with disastrous results. I then thought to test the ph levels and found they were quite high, but also the pond water was quite high. I tried a second experiment with pond water and it failed miserably also. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can help the little darlings survive??

[Wasabi 0]

Ok I have had fish before and wanted to breed them but was unsuccessful.

So I have a few questions on what setup I should have for my next fish.

Cause I really badly wanna breed...

ok...

1. What size tank should I have?

2. Will i need a heater? and to make them spawn how do I drop the temperature of the water in the tank?

3. What Month would I start to see that they are ready to breed?

4. How old does the fish have to be before they can breed? and does that apply to both sexes?

5. Best food for them before they started to show signs of breeding?

6. Will I need gravel at the bottom of the tank?

and I should be ok when they do breed.

so advice would be gr8 thanx everyone.

[Guest orandaman12344a]

Thanks for the info,it was really helpful!!!

[Guest WillowXD]

I think my gold fish are breeding???

can you help me, here is my form post:

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...mp;#entry847361

[Guest jodeoh60]

Hello, this is my first post and I may be in the wrong spot for asking this question:

I kept my 55 gal tank at 60F and 4 hrs of light for two months, then increased the lighting to 14 hrs per day and the temp to 75F over two weeks. My six 3yo lionheads chase each other in the early morning only, then no action later. How long after breaking from their winter "dormancy" of short days and cold water with heavy protein meals will they begin to spawn? The females are obviously heavy with egg, but the males have no tubercles. Water quality is excellent, with frequent 10 and 20% changes. They continue to feed heavily Thanks !!!

[blinky000 32]

I had the same problem. The male would chase the female around like he should but nothing for months. I don't quite know what did it but something finally got him doing the right thing. Often, breeding problems can be solved by monitoring barometric pressure. I think your best bet is to drop the temp again, wait until you know there is a storm coming and increase it the days leading up to it. If there going to do something in the near future, this is when they'll do it. Have you tested the males to see if they're producing milt yet?

[crazyfish949 0]

Hi friends i'm new to this forum, i've found it really interesting, i'm intended to breed lionhead orandas and had a lot of questions to do but most of them where already anwered here, like the size of breeding tank and also i was'nt so sure about filtration/cycled water etc etc.

Its nice to find this informative forum, i'm pretty sure i'll keep in touch.

thanks & regards.

[skinnyrose 0]

I had the same problem. The male would chase the female around like he should but nothing for months. I don't quite know what did it but something finally got him doing the right thing. Often, breeding problems can be solved by monitoring barometric pressure. I think your best bet is to drop the temp again, wait until you know there is a storm coming and increase it the days leading up to it. If there going to do something in the near future, this is when they'll do it. Have you tested the males to see if they're producing milt yet?

How do you test a male to see if they are producing milt, so far I"ve had 2 rounds of eggs and no milt...I'm worried about my boy because hes the aggresser and yet hes not doing his job...

[Sharkasm 0]

Hi... i was wondering if it is possible to breed a normal goldfish with one of them fancy ones ... (the fatter ones with the fancy tails)????? Because i've got a bunch of goldfish i was thinking about breeding but all the normal ones are males... the only females i have are the black one with the Bugged out eyes and the fatter one with the fancy tail.... just wondering if it was possible to cross breed them...

405601[/snapback]

All goldfish are one species and it is perfectly ok to cross-breed. U can even cross-breed them with koi

You can cross-breed with koi however hte offspring will be infertile and drab in color from what i have learned. The good thing about it though is that they tend to be more durable and over winter better in colder climates!

[koko 14,366]

They also look alittle strange atleast to me... they have a very big body but there heads seem smaller than they should be, kinda like Salmon

[Sharkasm 0]

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

Got my first batch of eggs this morning at 8 o'clock.. it's 8 p.m. and there's a fry swimming around in the tank! Is that normal? That's 12 hours! I could not even see an egg sac on the belly. I'm totally baffled by this. There were no breeding pairs in that tank before today. I put them in this morning when i saw the courtship chase begin and within minutes they were in the spawning mop. I've only spotted one so far but I am going to be keeping a very close eye on them. Stumped here.. any thoughts?

[Sharkasm 0]

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

Got my first batch of eggs this morning at 8 o'clock.. it's 8 p.m. and there's a fry swimming around in the tank! Is that normal? That's 12 hours! I could not even see an egg sac on the belly. I'm totally baffled by this. There were no breeding pairs in that tank before today. I put them in this morning when i saw the courtship chase begin and within minutes they were in the spawning mop. I've only spotted one so far but I am going to be keeping a very close eye on them. Stumped here.. any thoughts?

[phishnet 0]

I've been reading up and 12 hours seems to be a bit short and new hatchlings shouldn't be swimming right away either.

[Sharkasm 0]

I believe it must be from another breeding session I wasn't aware of and had to have gotten into the breeding tank when I moved a sponge that I keep over the inlet of the external filter from one tank to another. I wanted to have it in place now so that when the fry are large enough I dont have to disturb too much and I can then just plug it in when they are large enough to handle the current. He's free swimming and I did have a chance to see him feed last night. The only other pair that I have seen in a spawning chase were two small orandas one bright orange female and one with a black top and fins with orange sides. should be interesting to see what it grows into. Could be a number of other fish from the main tank too. I'm just going to have to wait and see!

[rtate 0]

Hi there.

Well we two absolutely beautiful oranda from Tommy at goldfishnet less than a week ago. We came home today and there are thousands of eggs in the tank! Not only that but the male is pooping out tan looking poops all over the place. I'm at a total loss. How do I get the eggs out without hurting them? My little girls will never forgive me if don't at least quarantine them. could the massive pooping action be from the praziquantel we gave to the new guys?

Thank you thank you! Omg

[BrettFish 4]

How do you go about cooling your tank to winter your goldfish? I know there are chillers out there but I simply can't afford them.

[Kylen 53]

How do you go about cooling your tank to winter your goldfish? I know there are chillers out there but I simply can't afford them.

The very first step is to identify the gender of your fish. Males usually have breeding stars on their gil plates or leading fins. Females tend to have their vent ('egg shoot') protrude out more. After that just move the tank to the coldest room in the house, maybe the garage. Dramatically reduce feeding, and limit the time the light is on. Do this for a month or two. Then move the tank back inside. Increase feeding, increase time light is on and keep an eye on the weather. Next time their is going to be rain, or a change in pressure, do a large water change (preferably with water colder then room temperature),the raise in water temp as it comes to room temp combined with a change in atmospheric pressure usually triggers spawning. I've also noticed that my fish, even though primed for spawning, didn't start spawning until I put a spawning mob in.

Here is how to make a simple one

[Rijen 16]

hi,

Today i tried hand spawning after research of 3 yrs. Everything was going good like sexing them hand pressing all good but a single mistake ruined my all eggs and that was i firstly did everything in a bucket and tried to pour the eggs to the small aquarium which i prepared just to make eggs hatch . The eggs stuck to bucket and couldnt be poured to tank so i had no second chance so i tried to shift eggs with hand and all eggs got spoiled. I would have make spawn eggs directly to tank that would sure saved my eggs, next Saturday i will do it again but not with same fish i have one more pair , will post update.

[goldfishfanforever 913]

hi,

Today i tried hand spawning after research of 3 yrs. Everything was going good like sexing them hand pressing all good but a single mistake ruined my all eggs and that was i firstly did everything in a bucket and tried to pour the eggs to the small aquarium which i prepared just to make eggs hatch . The eggs stuck to bucket and couldnt be poured to tank so i had no second chance so i tried to shift eggs with hand and all eggs got spoiled. I would have make spawn eggs directly to tank that would sure saved my eggs, next Saturday i will do it again but not with same fish i have one more pair , will post update.

This thread hasn't been updated in over six months so we recommend to stop posting on threads like this

[koko 14,366]

 

hi,

Today i tried hand spawning after research of 3 yrs. Everything was going good like sexing them hand pressing all good but a single mistake ruined my all eggs and that was i firstly did everything in a bucket and tried to pour the eggs to the small aquarium which i prepared just to make eggs hatch . The eggs stuck to bucket and couldnt be poured to tank so i had no second chance so i tried to shift eggs with hand and all eggs got spoiled. I would have make spawn eggs directly to tank that would sure saved my eggs, next Saturday i will do it again but not with same fish i have one more pair , will post update.

This thread hasn't been updated in over six months so we recommend to stop posting on threads like this

 

Hun this is a pinned topic anyone can reply

[goldfishfanforever 913]

hi,

Today i tried hand spawning after research of 3 yrs. Everything was going good like sexing them hand pressing all good but a single mistake ruined my all eggs and that was i firstly did everything in a bucket and tried to pour the eggs to the small aquarium which i prepared just to make eggs hatch . The eggs stuck to bucket and couldnt be poured to tank so i had no second chance so i tried to shift eggs with hand and all eggs got spoiled. I would have make spawn eggs directly to tank that would sure saved my eggs, next Saturday i will do it again but not with same fish i have one more pair , will post update.

This thread hasn't been updated in over six months so we recommend to stop posting on threads like this

Hun this is a pinned topic anyone can reply

Whoops didn't see that :/

[Rijen 16]

ok, Now i am going to breed my fishes coming Saturday morning,  I have  purchased brine shrimp eggs, live plants and started feeding my mature male and female just one thing is bothering me what size tank would be appropriate cause i have a spare tank just of 5 gallon would that be fine or need more, suggest me i can afford for a big one if needed. my female is 7 inches with big stomach so could lay more than thousands of eggs.

Male

Female

[koko 14,366]

In hoping you mean the 5 gallon for the fry?

[elinsbutterflies 5]

This is a really good read, thank you for the advice Doing all the research I can before my butterflies are ready to spawn!

[the_goldfish_addiction 0]

Hello, I am knew to this site but I need help. I'm planning to cross- breed goldfish. Is it possible to breed a black moor with a oranda? I don't know how to upload photos into this.