Breeding size

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

I have a pool full Of feeders and commets, And a few koi I was wondering for the goldfish what is a good size to breed with?

Also I noticed some fish put on more weight then others are these the females?

[The Pond Boy]

Hi,

With about 30 goldfish an koi in a 6x6x1 pond, you will not have many baby fish because if they spawn, the fish will eat all or almost all the eggs. Goldfish with a length of 3-4 inches can already spawn. You are far over populated to have baby fish.
Thanks,

Greg Veldhuizen
The Pond Boy
www.thepondboy.com

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

I was going to take them out in pairs or groups into tanks to breed to save the fry, I have also herd you can remove the eggs into another tank?

How did you guess I have around 30 fish

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

Also What are some good tips for when they breed, If i put the eggs in a  bucket Do I have to put a heater on it? And how long after fry have hatched do they start to eat?

[Fishnut]

Breeding goldfish is not too difficult but unless you have the capabilities of housing thousands of baby goldfish I wouldn't recommend it.  Goldfish can lay thousands of eggs! You also need to think about what you will be doing with so many goldfish when they grow.  If you sell them, are you prepared for them to become feeder goldfish?  Just because the parents are orange, or whatever colour they are, doesn't mean you will get orange goldfish.  You will also be getting some brown or grey coloured goldfish that will be difficult to sell to someone who wants some bright fish in the pond.

If you still want to breed them you just need to put the adults (2 males to 1 female) in a seperate tank or pond with a lot of spawnaing material at one end.  Spawning material could be any kind of abundantly stringy and/or bushy plants.  Some people create spawning material out of cotton yarn.  When they are finished take them out and add a filter to the pond.  You will have to keep this water very clean and remi\ove any eggs that go white and grow a fluffy fungus.

Goldfish will not span this time of year.  They are spring spawners so if you absolutely want to try this, condition them really well, give them a nice cold winter and they will spawn in the spring.

Search goldfish breeding on google.  I got tones of hits when I ran a search just now on "breeding goldfish"

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

They were in a cold basement for 6 months and just got moved upstairs, So the feamles are getting ripe and the chase is on, I would sell most as feeders and then cull through and pick out ones with nice colouration, and grow them for pond fish, Now for the 2 to 1 thing Can I add more females Or only one? And because I have a few ripe females can the males spawn several times?

Thanks

[Fishnut]

There's quite a lot to learn.  Entire books are dedicated to breeding goldfish so it's not going to be possible for me to type EVERYTHING you need to know here.  As I mentioned, you need to spend some time with google.  I got a lot of great hits when I typed in goldfish breeding.

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

Well, One spawned, So google and book searching got delayed lol.

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

After I posted The post above me I moved the male and female back into the spawnning tank and she is still laying more eggs, I can also see a bit of developement in the ones from yseturday.

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

I can now see there eyes and a bit of movment, Also removed some bad eggs that went fuzzy. very intresting

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

Some of the eggs have hatched, There swimmimg around, They look like sea monkeys there so small

How long does the egg sac last befoe I have to feed powder foods?

[bergenm]

Here's a good guideline...

http://www.goldfishinfo.com/spawn.htm

My best success has been when the babies are a "natural" setting, where they can pick at the plant roots, dig through the "mulm", nibble on some algae, and hunt some daphnia and rotifers. They have a constant food source, it doesn't spoil after a couple of hours and there is a lot of protein.

If you are not able to provide that type of environment, you should feed liquid baby food (powder after 2-3 weeks), get some baby brine shrimp (frozen or live), start growing microworms. You can also check with some of the local nurseries (Make It Green/Richmond Nursery), their plant tanks are usually full of mulm which is teaming with daphnia and rotifers - You could ask if you can siphon some water or net some out (just keep an eye out for larger nymphs - they will eat your fish ).

Good luck

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

I have also Noticed, The male sailfin In with the Goldie's seems to go after only a few fish, Maybe this is the trick to proving females without breeding? and he is also going after my proven breeder