Breeding
Goldfish
and
Raising Baby Goldfish Fry.
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This
page is about Breeding
Goldfish and has information
about spawning Goldfish, about
the difficulty of determining
the gender of Goldfish, and
about raising Goldfish fry. |
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We
got an email shown
below asking us for more
information about
breeding Red Cap Orandas,
like the beautiful one
shown in the picture to
the left that is about
3" to 3.5"
long. |
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Customer Comments |
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I
was on your web
page looking for
information on
how to breed my
Red Cap Orandas.
I have found
where I can
purchase them,
but nothing on
how to breed
them. I
have a female in
the tank which
has laid eggs.
I have another
Red Cap in the
tank with her,
but I am not
sure if my
second fish is a
female or a
male. Will
either one of
them eat the
eggs, how long
does it take for
the eggs to
hatch, Do I need
to remove either
one of
them? I
was looking for
answers to these
questions and
more. Can you
help me?
Thank-you
Mande |
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Reply.
Hello Mande. Sometimes
Goldfish begin to spawn, when
they've grown to be about
3" long, but usually they
don't begin to spawn, until
they're at least 4" long,
and professional breeders use
even larger fish that produce
more eggs and more baby fish. A
female Goldfish can lay several
thousand eggs during one
spawning. |
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1. Determining a Goldfish's Gender
It's not easy to tell the male
Goldfish from the female
Goldfish. Professional breeders
can often tell the difference,
but it's difficult for them to
explain how they do it.
Mature female
Goldfish are usually plumper,
and mature males have little
bumps on their heads, called
tubercles, that turn white and
are easier to see, when the
Goldfish spawn. Click
here
for more information about
determining the gender of
Goldfish. |
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2. Spawning Mops
Goldfish
spawn best in the spring after a
cold winter. Most professional
Goldfish breeders place floating
"spawning mops" in the
ponds with their breeder gold
fish. These spawning mops are
usually made by cutting off
18" lengths of nylon rope.
One set of ends is tied together
tightly, and the other ends are
untwisted to make a big fluffy
mop.
Goldfish lay
adhesive eggs that stick to the
spawning mops. Since Goldfish
love to eat their eggs and baby
goldfish, the mops must be
removed promptly and put in
another pond or large aquarium,
where the eggs hatch into tiny
Goldfish fry.
These Goldfish
fry must feed on the microscopic
life in the pond for several
days, before they are large
enough to start eating powdered
food. Click
here
for more about powdered food for
baby fish. |
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Click
here
to buy books with more information about keeping goldfish.
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3. It's January 18th
and the
weather has been unusually cold
here in San Diego. The water
temperature in the small pond by
my front door is 48 degrees F.
This is the coldest I've ever
measured. I looked at my
Goldfish carefully to be sure
that "he" is doing
well, and I noticed that
"he" has gotten quite
a bit plumper. In fact I think
that maybe "he" is a
female and starting to fill with
eggs to lay in the spring.
Click here
to see a picture of my Goldfish
that was taken last summer, when
"she" was still
slender. |
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4. Ways to Stimulate Goldfish to
Spawn.
(1) Do a
partial water change every day.
Fresh water stimulates Goldfish
to spawn. Remove up to 20% of
the water and replace that water
with fresh tap water. Changing
more than 20% of the water on
one day may stress your
Goldfish, even if you add Water
Conditioner. Click
here
for more information about Water
Conditioner.
(2)
Improve the diet of your
Goldfish. Do not abruptly change
the type of food that you feed
your Goldfish, instead add some
live or frozen food to their
diet like brine shrimp or feed
them a few Live Black Worms.
Click here
for more about feeding Live
Black Worms to fish.
(3) Many
Goldfish breeders separate the
males and females into separate
ponds, then put the males and
females back together in the
same pond to spawn. This means
you have to be able to
distinguish the males from the
females, which is not easy to
do. |
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Books about Goldfish
The books shown below are listed on Amazon.com. You can click on the title or on the image of a book to go to the page at Amazon.com, where that book is listed and
discussed. In some cases you can preview several of the pages in that book. |
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Click
here for a complete list of books about
Goldfish at Amazon.com. |
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Click
here
now to go on to another page
in this web site with more
Customer Comments and our
Replies about Breeding Goldfish. |
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