goldfish breeding?

[thom336]

im not sure, but 2 of my goldfish are being chased around by another. my mum asked me if they could be breeding, but i really had no idea. i checked all my mags and books, but i cojuldnt get an accurate account of the breeding proces (or any account for that matter). they seemed to focus on the looking after of the fry and the conditions required for breeding. could anyone tell me if they are breeding, or what the breeding process involves? as a precaution if they are breeding (which i am rather hoping they are), i am gathering all the buckets i can for the eggs. when the fry hatch, i'll probablt keep them in to grow on for a while, before transferring to my newly converted pond...lucky i did that convertion i guess.

thanks in advance for any info you can provide. i'll let you know if eggs appear!

[sean mckinney]

that is the way they behave, the females chased may have fat bellies and the male chaser may have white spots on his gill covers, the fry are tiny 1/4" x 1/32" or less.
Good luck.

[thom336]

thanks. yea, they have gone very fat. no eggs yet thou, and it seems to have calmed down i there...i hope they didnt eat eggs before i got back from school.

[sean mckinney]

I doubt you will see eggs, I never did and mine breed 3 times last year, You can get or make things they they like for egg laying but I haven't bothered. You will get over populated quickly if all the fry survive. I reckon I saved 1 in 10 from the the latter 2 hatchings that I caught, maybe 1 in 20, and I still have 50 +. I probably dumped 90++% of the first because Ididnt know they were there.
Losses are natural so dont get to upset about them, I culled one about a month ago so its still going on.

[thom336]

i know, amd if they do breed then i have no intention of raising many, mayube a dozen or so. i'll pick out the best, as i dont really have the space to grow on any more at the moment. thanks again.

[ChilDawg]

And we could start another euthanasia thread for what should happen to the culls, but you have a big fish or two or know someone who does, right? :) (Not wanting to open that can of worms again!!!)

[thom336]

(here we go again...)

no, i'm either just gonna destroy large numbers of the eggs, let the parents it a load of them, and those that i grow on i'll hit with a hammer whne i want to cut down numbers. but no signs of breeding so far....

[thom336]

well, so far today that is. obviously from the other posts you can tell that they hav been gettin jiggy.

[ChilDawg]

Sorry about that...just a little too tempting to resist writing that, but I wanted to let you know that, unless you think that it's cruel (in which case, I will respect your opinion), you could sell them to the LFS as feeders, or to a friend's large fish. People in the States make a pretty penny with the former, or make a pretty fish with the latter.

[thom336]

lol. well, i know it seems a waste to just kill them, and sometimes it is hard to make a decision like that, but its the way i view things. i wouldnt deliberately feed a live fish to another fish, but dont mind if they ocasionally 'slip' into the mouths of other fish in the same tank or pond where they were born....

but i do see both viewpoints, and unfortunately i dont know anyone with large fish, and my LFS would not take them in...their like that....same viewpoint as me.

[ChilDawg]

Understood, and I respect your viewpoints on those deals. Hopefully all this talk isn't just academic and the fish will be getting down to business and setting you up with some pretty ones for the future!

[thom336]

i surely hope so...

[aquariaddictus]

You probably won't have to worry about it. Unless there is a lot of cover for the eggs to fall into, the goldfish won't hesitate to eat the eggs as soon as they are laid. They have no parental protective instincts, that I've noticed. I did find a large clump of eggs on my water hyacinths (they will lay them in floating vegetation if they can) and scooped them out and hatched them elsewhere. Even so, my survival rate was quite low, and most of the fry were pretty dull.

[thom336]

well, despite quietening down, they have started up again, and one of them is lookin very plump. so maybe its started up again...

[thom336]

thanks for all your advice. should i maybe float some parrots feather on the surface in the hope they'll spawn in that if they are planning to spawn?

[aquariaddictus]

That would be good. And you'll stand a chance of seeing the eggs once they've laid them. You'll be amazed at the number of them!!

[thom336]

yea, ive read there can be hundreds...thanks for that, i'll put some in later today. but its a bit wet at the moment outside (a bit isnt the word...i think a more suited word is 'terential rain', well, it would be if i could spell...), and i'll have to get right down back of garden to my other pond in order to get som parrots feather....i will venture out later like i say. because of the rain i havent got out to see if they have laid any yet, plus i just got in from school about an hour ago. i'll let you know if i see anything.
thanks again for all your help!

[thom336]

ok...rain stopped, so i went out. no eggs, but two plump fish (just hoping the others a male...there is only three in that pond). i put the parrots feather on the surface. i surely hope all goes as expected. :)

[aquariaddictus]

If you look at the fish from the top, a male will be slender and cigar-shaped, while the females will be plump. If they are ripe with eggs, it's pretty easy to tell. Good luck!