Hello. I have owned my goldfish for 6 years now, and have just decided to try and breed. A bit late, I know, but anyway... I have two tanks with 2 goldfish in each. I am pretty sure the smaller tank contains 2 females, as they are getting larger and have no tubercles. (Sorry if my spelling is off.) However, the larger tank contains two goldfish I am uncertain about. It contains one common goldfish, and one white goldfish. They are not getting fatter, and have no tubercles, although it's difficult to tell with the white goldfish. They do tend to chase each other and their reflection, but I bought them a new tank a week ago so I don't know whether they are just a bit nervous because of their new surroundings? Apart from that, they seem very healthy, and are very tame around me. Pleas help, I would love to be able to breed them!
Please Help With Defining Gender!
- Thread starter netty-x
- Start date
Ripley
Fishaholic
What size is the tank that they will be breeding in? How big are the goldfish? Its hard to sex them, and when they bred in my pond I could'nt see any tubercles on the males (there may have been though). But in my experience I found the best way is to place 4-6 goldfish in a tank ( 30-50 gallons) or a large rubbermaid container. Put either home made breeding mops or water hyacine in the tank for them to lay their eggs in and take out the adults when you see little orange eggs.
Goldfish breed in spring after they have been kept in cool water for a while and then the temperature goes up. This is the only time males show the white breeding spots on their gills and pectoral fins. During the rest of the year they don't have any spots.
Female goldfish are usually fatter because they are full of eggs. Males are slender.
If the fish are over a year old they should be old enough to breed. Keep them in a cold water tank (temperature below 20C) for a few weeks and feed them well. Make sure not to overfeed them otherwise any uneaten food will cause water quality problems.
After a period of cool conditions you can increase the temperature to about 24-26C. Do this over a day or two. Then the fish will start to breed.
The males will chase the females around and nudge their belly area. This is to stimulate the females and encourage them to release the eggs. When a female is ready to lay, the pair of fish will swim side by side into some plants and scatter eggs and sperm. This process will be repeated a number of times during the day and can sometimes go on for several days.
If they are in a tank you will probably find the water develops a milky cloudy appearance. You can do a water change to clear this up but don't use a gravel syphon otherwise you could suck up the eggs.
Remove the adult fish to another tank and wait. In a few days time there will be tiny little fish hanging onto the glass and plants. A few days later they will start swimming around. Now you start feeding them on very small fish food.
The best food for goldfish fry is green water and infusoria. Green water is simply water that is full of free-floating algae. You can make it up outside in a plastic tub. Fill the tub with freshwater and add a heaped tablespoon of lawn fertiliser per 50litres. Leave it until the water goes dark green. Then you take some of the green water and pour it into the tank several times a day.
You can also have lots of light on the fish tank and this can encourage an algal bloom and cause the water to go green.
To culture Infusoria fill a 40-60litre container with freshwater and add 1 whole lettuce per 20litres of water. Have an airstone bubbling away gently in the container and put a lid on it. Leave it for a couple of weeks and soon the water will clear. When the water has cleared and no longer smells you can lift the airstone out and wait for 10 minutes. Then you will see clouds of tiny white things moving around. These are Paramecium (infusoria) and can be scooped out and poured into the tank with the fry.
To keep this culture going add a couple of crumpled lettuce leaves each day. Keep the airstone bubbling away in the container when you aren't collecting the paramecium.
If you don't have a cover on the container mosquito larvae will grow in it and eat the Paramecium.
The water that gets removed from the culture containers can be replaced with some fresh dechlorinated water.
If all goes well you will have several hundred to several thousand baby goldfish. They start of bronze/ brown in colour and after a few months start to change into other colours. Some will stay bronze all their life.
Female goldfish are usually fatter because they are full of eggs. Males are slender.
If the fish are over a year old they should be old enough to breed. Keep them in a cold water tank (temperature below 20C) for a few weeks and feed them well. Make sure not to overfeed them otherwise any uneaten food will cause water quality problems.
After a period of cool conditions you can increase the temperature to about 24-26C. Do this over a day or two. Then the fish will start to breed.
The males will chase the females around and nudge their belly area. This is to stimulate the females and encourage them to release the eggs. When a female is ready to lay, the pair of fish will swim side by side into some plants and scatter eggs and sperm. This process will be repeated a number of times during the day and can sometimes go on for several days.
If they are in a tank you will probably find the water develops a milky cloudy appearance. You can do a water change to clear this up but don't use a gravel syphon otherwise you could suck up the eggs.
Remove the adult fish to another tank and wait. In a few days time there will be tiny little fish hanging onto the glass and plants. A few days later they will start swimming around. Now you start feeding them on very small fish food.
The best food for goldfish fry is green water and infusoria. Green water is simply water that is full of free-floating algae. You can make it up outside in a plastic tub. Fill the tub with freshwater and add a heaped tablespoon of lawn fertiliser per 50litres. Leave it until the water goes dark green. Then you take some of the green water and pour it into the tank several times a day.
You can also have lots of light on the fish tank and this can encourage an algal bloom and cause the water to go green.
To culture Infusoria fill a 40-60litre container with freshwater and add 1 whole lettuce per 20litres of water. Have an airstone bubbling away gently in the container and put a lid on it. Leave it for a couple of weeks and soon the water will clear. When the water has cleared and no longer smells you can lift the airstone out and wait for 10 minutes. Then you will see clouds of tiny white things moving around. These are Paramecium (infusoria) and can be scooped out and poured into the tank with the fry.
To keep this culture going add a couple of crumpled lettuce leaves each day. Keep the airstone bubbling away in the container when you aren't collecting the paramecium.
If you don't have a cover on the container mosquito larvae will grow in it and eat the Paramecium.
The water that gets removed from the culture containers can be replaced with some fresh dechlorinated water.
If all goes well you will have several hundred to several thousand baby goldfish. They start of bronze/ brown in colour and after a few months start to change into other colours. Some will stay bronze all their life.
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