Goldfish Breading

[jmowbray]

I was wondering how you tell the difference between male and femle goldfish? Also when do they usually mate?

I also have another question but it's not about mating. I soak my goldfish food in water for a cupple of mins. Then add it to my tank so they are not gulping it from the surface and sucking in air. I heard somewhere that that is what you are suposed to do so the food sinks. But some of the fish are still at the top sucking air. How can I make them stop?

[sarahbellum]

how about a food that sinks?

[COM]

1- Goldfish won't breed in an aquarium. Yes, I know it is possible, but it won't happen.

2- Agreed, buy sinking or granule food.

[tburdock]

Male goldfish will usually get white bumps, similar in appearance to grains of salt or ick, on their pectoral fins and gill covers when they are mature. Females are generally plumper.

[TheOldSalt]

They breed in the spring.
When the daylength gets longer and the temperatures get warmer after a winter period, spawning season comes.

They will spawn in an aquarium if it's a huge aquarium. When I say huge, I don't mean 55 gallons, either.

It won't hurt them to gulp a bit of air, and frankly, since air rises in water, they hardly ever swallow any air anyway when gulping at the surface. However, you can try sinking food.

[mykidsmom]

Cornmeal and flour, salt and pepper to taste. OH! sorry! I saw 'breading' in the topic and thought maybe you were thinking of 'fry'-ing up a few gold fish! Now, I realize you meant 'breeding'! That is a different type of 'fry'-ing!
Can't help you there!





(Sorry! No offense meant! I just couldn't help myself!)

[TheOldSalt]

I almost did the same thing, only I don't like "country style" and prefer batter-dipped. At the time, though, I couldn't remember how to describe "batter dipped" so I just gave up and answered the question.
MMMmmmmm... there's never an Arthur Treacher's around when you need one...

[lochness]

gosh durn it you guys beat me to the breading part lol

and yes TheOldSalt is correct:
They breed in the spring.
When the daylength gets longer and the temperatures get warmer after a winter period, spawning season comes.

They will spawn in an aquarium if it's a huge aquarium. When I say huge, I don't mean 55 gallons, either.

It won't hurt them to gulp a bit of air, and frankly, since air rises in water, they hardly ever swallow any air anyway when gulping at the surface. However, you can try sinking food.

[justintrask]

i actually beg to differ about the 55G comment.

The pond we have in our yard has 6 or 7 small comets, and this year we have a 125G set up for them in the winter, but in the past we have housed them in a 55G in the basement with loads of floating plants, 24/7 lighting (blacklight), and only food was from the basement, meaning lots of flies, spiders, etc at all times.

Every spring, we would come to get the comets to put into the pond, and we would have 5 or 6 more than we had left. Usually the smaller or unhealthier looking ones would become food for either the cat or one of the bigger fish in our household, since our pond isn't big enough for many more fish.

But anyways, our goldfish have bred in a 55G, so it's not impossible.

[Sock Yee]

You will notice tubercles forming on its gill something like white pimples and it only appears on the males. One clear sign is to see which one is chasing which. Obviously I don't need to tell which gender is being chased. Usually there's a big splash and heavy commotion when they mate. Eggs will be released everywhere and typical it's normal to find close to 500 eggs in a single spawn and out of that about 30-40% getting fertilized.

When it comes to feeding try to purchase the sinking pellets. This will reduce the probability of them gulping the air into their stomach.