Gold Fish Care

Breeding Goldfish

Breeding Goldfish is not an easy task. It is a fun-filled, worthwhile experience. But, it is also time consuming. If you want to breed Goldfish,you need to know the following:

• Age of maturity
• Determining the gender of the Goldfish
• Sexing
• Reproduction Strategies
• Breeding Tips
• Encouraging your Goldfish to spawn
• Identifying Eggs
• Egg Care
• Hatching and Raising Fry
• Fry Care
• Filtration, Aeration, and Heating
• Water, Lids, and Water Depth
• Lighting and Cleaning
• Feeding
• Goldfish Growth Rates and Color Changes

Age of Maturity

All Goldfish varieties, both male and female attain their maturity when they grow 3 to 5 inches (7.5 to 11 cm). Their maturity age differs from different types of fish and their living conditions. Nevertheless, they reach the maturity size from 10 months to 36 months

Determining the gender of the Goldfish.

It is impossible to differentiate between the sexes of Goldfish until they reach maturity. Only professional breeders can tell the difference. The internal and external difference between a female and a male are as follows. We can only see these differences after they attain maturity.

1 & 2 are the female anal openings. They are larger, protrude slightly and is round in shape. The anal fin is thicker and has a heavier first anal fin spine. Themale is 3 & 4. The male's opening is small and oval with no noticeable anal fin thickness.

Sexing

When a male and a female Goldfish attains at least 3 years of age, move the couple into a separate 20-gallon tank with plants. To encourage breeding, you should raise the temperature of the tank to 70 - 74 degrees F during the breeding season (spring). Sexing occurs in the wild during breeding season only. Through spawning method, we can breed in spring season.

Female goldfish are plumper than the male of the same species. The males have white little bumps on their heads. These are called tubercles and they become more visible during spawning.

The vents of females enlarge and turn outwards, while the male vent remains the same. Behavioral changes during the mating season includes the males chasing the females around the tank. You can use this as an indicator to separate the pairs. These differences become much more apparent as spawning time approaches. The male's opening is small and oval with no noticeable anal fin thickness.
These differences become more apparent as spawning time approaches. The female opening will be larger and more distended when the eggs are ripe. When the male is ready, milt may be pushed out of the ventral opening by running a finger lightly along the sides of the fish. But, this shouldn't be necessary as the tubercles can be plainly viewed.

Reproduction Strategies

Six types of reproduction can occur in fishes.

1. Brood
2. Egg depositors
3. Egg scatters
4. Live bearers
5. Labyrinth fish
6. Mouth brooders

Here naturally all varieties of Goldfish are reproduced their fry through Egg scatters strategy.

Brood:

If the fish reproduces through brood strategy, one of the parents takes care of the eggs and fry. They protect their eggs or fry from other fishes.

Egg depositors:

The egg depositors lay their eggs under any object like gravel or plant leaf or rocks or in nest or on a surface.

Egg scatters

The 'egg scatters'type of fish swims into watery plants or sides of objects or in gravels and scatters its eggs on them. In this type, both male and female scatter their eggs and sperm respectively by pushing against each other. Sometimes, parents may eat their own eggs. In this type, we should protect the eggs from the parents and other fish.

Live bearers

In Live bearer's, female fish develop the eggs inside the body after mating. After a certain period of time, live fry are born on theirown.

Labyrinth fish

Labyrinth fish protect their eggs in bubble nests. The male makes bubble nest using saliva and water. The male protects the egg until fry are born.

Mouth brooders

Some species of fish protect their fertilized eggs in their mouth until they hatch.
By this time, both male and female does not eat much.

Breeding Tips

1. Changes in water temperature, direction of change is dependant on the species.
2. Changes in water depth and direction of change is also dependant on the species.
3. Changes in feeding - usually increase in live foods.
4. Changes in tank mates - usually separate and re-join male(s) and female(s) or introduce new fish together.
5. Changes in water quality - usually cleaner water with a greater pH closely matching that found in the wild.
6. Changes in lighting - usually increase in day time

Encouraging your Goldfish to spawn

Spawning of fish is an artificial method formating fishes. This method is worked well for fish which, belongs to Egg depositors and Egg scatters reproduction type.

Goldfish are egg scatters so they prefer to breed on soft location. Hair-like structures of algae plants and soft aquarium plants help
the fish to spawn.

We can induce spawning in Goldfish by the following ways.

1) Replace 20% of the water in their tank with fresh tap water. This will induce the pair to spawn. But make sure you don't change more than 20% of the water, as this may stress your fish out.
2) A gradual change in diet may also induce spawning. Normally, they respond to live food like brine shrimp, tubifex or black worms, daphnia, etc. But, remember not to change their dietovernight.

Live food gives the extra nutrition required to produce vast quantity of eggs and sperm. Feeding fish to induce spawning is called conditioning.

3) Gold fish can be spawned easily for temperature changes during spring season.
4) If the above three methods doesn't help, then separate the male and female on the first day of spring and put them back together
after 15 to 18 days in the spring season, then they will spawn.

Just keep in mind that goldfish do not do well with drastic changes. Any change in diet or habitat has to be gradual.

Now, the fish is ready to mate. After spawning, increase the temperature of the tank from 70 to 74 degrees F. Before mating, female fish carries unfertilized eggs. At the time of mating, male releases sperm and female releases unfertilized eggs. Sperm and unfertilized eggs get together to form fertilized eggs on the leaves. Female may lay eggs from 10 to 1000 eggs.

After spawning, increase the temperature of the tank from 70 to74 degrees F. Before mating, female fish carries unfertilized eggs At the time of mating, male releases sperm and female releasesunfertilized eggs. Sperm and unfertilized eggs get together to form fertilized eggs on the leaves. Female may lay eggs from 10 to 1000 eggs.

Identifying Eggs

Ideally, you should remove the eggs from the main tank and transfer them into a dish no more than six inches deep so that you can wash the eggs. Otherwise, we can separate parents to another aquarium to prevent them from eating the eggs. If eggs are scattered, we can remove those from the mating tank by using a siphon. Just make sure that the temperature of this water is the same as the temperature of the water in the tank. After cleaning the eggs, place them in a 20-gallon tank. Maintain a steady temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Egg Fungus

Some eggs will be white in color while others tanned. The clear, white ones are the fertile eggs. You should remove the infertileeggs as they are susceptible to fungal infections that could kill the fertile eggs as well. We can remove infertile eggs using finger nail tweezers. The fertile eggs will hatch in four to five days time. To prevent egg fungus, add dilute solution of methylene blue to the water tank which has the transferred eggs. We can keep all the eggs first in methylene blue solution for one day. Then remove the unfertile eggs and transfer the fertile eggs to a fresh water tank. Frying does not do well in methyelene blue solution.Now, let's see stage by stage how an egg becomes a fry or hatchling. The egg shown in the picture is three days old. It is a well developed embryo.
This is the embryo at the beginning of the fourth day. Now, let's see stage by stage

Hatchlings

Goldfish requires more oxygen in the development stage. Use of mud and organic debris is not suitable to the development ofeggs. At birth, Goldfish fish are tiny… only onesixth of an inch! They are translucent and have large black eyes.

This is a nine-day old fry.

Fry care

After the hatchling comes out, we have to care until it attains full growth.

First, move the hatchings into larger tanks of 20 gallon or divide them to prevent overcrowding.

Temperature:

Your fry likes warmer temperatures, so maintain the temperature at 75 degrees F.

Water:

Unwanted organisms can be grown in the tank. In order to prevent from growing such organisms, add 2 spoons of salt per 10 to 12 gallon water. Don't add too much of salt since Goldfish does not like salty water.

Tank cover:

Please cover the water tanks with glass to keep moisture in. You should provide more oxygen supply to the fry.

Filtration and Aeration:

To provide bacteria in the tank, use filter with carbon and floss. Fix filter in the corner of the tank. Otherwise, you can also makeuse of sponge filter. Light aeration is needed for the egg until it starts to feed. We can provide light aeration in the filter by flow of air bubbles. Don't feed fry until it can swim.

Lighting and cleaning

If you start feeding them, you have to clean the tank on a regular basis. Before feeding, make sure the tank is clean. Provide light above the tank after you add food in the tank. This will be very helpful for the fry to find their food.

Feeding for Fry

Taking their tiny size into consideration, it is very difficult to feed young Goldfish. You should drop sufficient food for them to eat. But, remember to clean the tank before adding fresh food every few hours to prevent stagnation. For the young fish to survive, they need to be fed often and sensibly to keep them alive and growing. You can feed live foods, various sizes of micro worms, daphnia, cyclops, and euglena. Make sure live foods are free from parasital or bacterial infection. You can feed fry foods, pearls and baby brine shrimp

Brineshrimps (Artemia salina)

Most fry are large enough to eat brine shrimp as their first food, especially if you give them newly hatched brine shrimp. Very small fry should instead be fed infusoria initially, and brine shrimp can be introduced as a second food. If you feed your brine shrimp suitable food, they will grow large enough to be used as food for adult fish as well. Growing large brine shrimps is an inexpensive way of providing your fish with much appreciated livefood and is especially recommended when you wish to induce spawning. Just like infusoria, brine shrimp is easy to cultivate at home. You can buy a brine shrimp hatchery from your fish store or fix one yourself. Brine shrimp will hatch even in bottles! Some brine shrimp hatcheries will require an air stone connected to an air operated pump. Other brine shrimp hatcheries can be attached inside or outside the aquarium.

If you want to fix your own brine shrimp hatchery in a bottle,you can use a clean milk bottle or a similar container. Boil some water, three quarters of a pint is enough, and let it cool down before you fill the bottle. Add one teaspoon of aquarium salt tothe water and put the bottle in a warm room. It is possible to use ordinary cooking salt instead of aquarium salt, but the result will usually not be as good as aquarium salt. Insert an air stone in the bottle to provide oxygen. Place a pinch of brine shrimp eggs in the water and wait for them to hatch. The water temperature must never go below 15 degrees Celsius, but this is usually not a problem in a temperate room. Brine shrimp eggs will typically hatch after 48 hours or even earlier.

By setting up new bottles, you can make sure that you always have suitable size brine shrimp for your fry Brine shrimp eggs can be bought in most pet shops and fish stores. If you use eggs with shells, you must turn off the air stone in the hatchery to make the shells sink to the bottom. The hatched brine shrimp will stay a few inches above the bottom and can be easily removed. It is important to separate the brine shrimp from the shells, since shells might get stuck inside the fry if they consume the eggs. You can also buy shell-free brine shrimp eggs.

Water Fleas (Daphnia)

Water fleas can be hard to disinfect properly, so if you want tofeed your fry daphnia, you must obtain it from a source that you can trust and that you know have no sanitary problems. The same is true if you plan to raise your own daphnia for the fry. You must make sure that you begin with a disease-free starter culture.

Once you have obtained a proper starter culture of daphnia, the rest is easy. Fill a plastic container with 5 gallons of tap water and let the water stand for roughly 48 hours at room temperature. Obtain a handful of manure from a stable. You may also require a nylon bag. You can produce one yourself from a pair of nylon stay-ups or use the type of nylon bag that comes with washing machine tablets. Place the manure in the nylon bag and submerge the nylon bag in water. After roughly 7-10 days, the water would have turned cloudy, which means the water is now filled withmicro organisms for the daphnia to feed on.Add the daphnia to water and wait. The culture will take care of itself for the few weeks during which the daphnia grows large and abundantenough to be used as fish food. The easiest way of removing daphnia is to use a fine meshed net.

White worms

White worms are the much appreciated fry food that can be cultured at home. You need some moist and nutritious garden soil for the white worms to grow. Fill 75% of a shallow box with garden soil. If necessary, water the soil until it is quite damp.

It is important that the soil is never allowed to dry out, but waterlogged soil is just as bad. Add the white worm culture to the soil together with a few small pieces of moist white bread. Cover the box with a lid. The box or the lid must have some air holes toallow for ventilation. Put the box in a dark place where the temperature is around 16 - 18 degree Celsius. Add new bread to the box every 3 - 4 days and make sure that the soil is constantly moist. If you find any uneaten food, you should remove it before it turns bad.

When it is time for you to collect white worms for your fish, you just spoon out some soil from underneath the bread. You will naturally find one of the largest congregations of white worm right beneath the food pieces. Pour the soil with the white worms into a bowl or dish filled with water. When the worms separatesfrom the soil, you can easily collect and drop them into the aquarium.

Please provide large tank according to their growth rate. After 2 to 3 months, fry can grow large enough to live with parents. At that time, we can put fish with their parents and other fish.

Growth rate and color changes in young ones Growth rate

Goldfish can grow up to 1 to 4 inches (2.5 to 10) years. Common Gold fish and Comet grow up to 5 inches (12.5 cm) in two years. Single tail varieties reach 4 to 6 inches in length (10 to 15.5 cm)within 32 months.

Fancy Goldfish can grow up to 3 to 5 inches (7.5 to 12.5 cm) within 30 months.

Color changes

They may take one or two years to change the brown color to golden color or their parents color. Some Common and comet Goldfish change their brown color when they attain a growth of an inch in length. Other varieties can change their color to orange or gold when it attain a growth of 4 to 5 inches. Most Common Gold remain in their natural color.

Fancy and Shubunkins Goldfish develop their colors when they attain a growth of an inch in length. They develop the best color and are ready to breed earlier than Common Gold.