Spawning?

[amityv]

Ok i have had it with 2 of my calico fantails. I have 3 calico fantails in all,and there is 2 that chase around my other one. I am assuming the 2 are males and the 1 they are chasing is a female. Not sure how to check the sex of fish. But i did notice that the 2 doing the chasing have white spots on there gill plates and the one they chase doesnt. But they wont leave her alone. They dont bother my other fish. But They both gang up on the one to the point where they push her clear up to the top of the water and she is upside down. They chase her all over the tank,and hit her backside with there mouth. This is a 55 gallon aquarium and they have all been together for over a year now. Never had any problems till recently. I sit by the tank and watch for them to chase her then i bang on the tank with my hand to stop them.
Any ideas?

 

[Pondlady]

Don't hit the tank, it's not good for the fish. Your fish are trying to spawn. If you don't want little ones you better separate them right away.

The males develop white spots on their gills when it's breeding time. They push the female up to the surface trying to induce her to release eggs. I had a 55 gallon tank to hold my pond goldfish over the winter. I think it was about Feb/Mar when they decided to spawn. The chasing went on for a few days and then one day I noticed eggs ALL OVER the tank! They were even sprayed up onto the cover and on the wall behind the tank above the opening for the tubing and heater, etc. I carefully scraped the eggs off the glass with a razor blade and put them in a breeding net in the tank so the fish wouldn't eat them. A couple times each day I would use a turkey baster to suck up any eggs that turned cloudy or fuzzy to keep them from infecting the other eggs. Not too long after I had lots of little babies. I rasied them just until they were big enough to show some color, picked out my favorites and gave the rest away.

 

[amityv]

Thanks for relpying. They seem to have been leaving her alone lately. I was just so afraid they might hurt her. She's been hanging over by herself away from the 2 males. I dont mind babies,but i have a knife fish in my tank for the time being and i think he might like the babies as an appetizer. I may have to go buy a breeder tank like you said if i see eggs.
thanks again for the reply!

 

[Bradley]

Wow,

Pretty lucky to have goldfish spawn, they usually only do that in very large, muddy ponds. Pretty good i'd say, what type of goldfish was it,PondLady?, i might try that.

 

[Pondlady]

They were cheap "feeder" goldfish that I put in a tub water garden during the summer. Just regular goldfish, a few comets, and a Black Moor. I had to get rid of some of the males because they were just overwhelming the large female that spawned. I really didn't do anything special except feed them well and keep the tank clean (goldfish can be dirty).

I just realized that I goofed in my last post, I had the fish in a 30 gallon tank not my 55. I put them in with a couple of tropical fish and crabs. Somehow the crabs would "swim" up to the net and climb inside for a little caviar so everyday I would flip up the lid and check on the eggs. One time I didn't notice a dark crab on the dark ledge of the tank - when I leaned over to look, the crab smacked me in the nose and jumped back in the tank. Scared the daylights out of me!

The goldfish had actually gotten pretty big in the tub garden on the front porch, plus I fed them pond pellets al winter and they REALLY grew. The largest female weighed 1.2 pounds before I gave her away. She had quite a personality for a fish. The bottom of the tank was fairly small, black gravel. She used to ram into it and suck up the gravel, suck out any food, and spit out the gravel. When she got to that size, her nostrils were large enough that the gravel would sometimes get lodged in there and cause an infection. Several times I had to catch her and use a hat pin to flick out the gravel. She got so used to being handled that she would swim into my hand when I put it in the tank. All of the fish would eat worms from my hand, but she would just grab my pinky and suck - she could get all the way up to the second joint!

Good luck!