Hi Robyn and others in the forum,

the other day I observed my goldfish chasing one of the others around. thinking that it was being harrassed I removed it from the main tank for a few days into a plain plastic bowl. i went to return the goldfish to the main tank tonight and noticed that there was alot of little white balls sitting on the bottom of the bowl. I then did some searches for goldfish breeding and discovered the whole spawning chase thing. I also read something about the male fish putting milt (?) to fertilise the eggs.

My question is the eggs have been there for a day at most, can I now put the male goldfish in to do what he has to do to fertilise the eggs?

Thanks for the help!

missjesse

The male must be present when the eggs are laid in order for them to be fertilized. Any eggs that she laid alone will not be fertile nor can they be made to be fertile (if it's been more than about an hour). Sorry. She will probably spawn again if you want to try to raise babies.

Thanks Robyn! Is there a time frame in which she will spawn again? when they start their chasing again should i remove them to the other bowl and then take them out once I have seen eggs?

Hi
I have had my fantail goldfish breed succsefully a few times ,goldfish in ponds seem to breed in the spring, those in a tank seem to do the same ,mine only spawned once a year at about may to sept ,it only happend when the female had swollen very fat with eggs and the male had his white breeding spots on his gills.
When this happens put some feathery plants in to catch the eggs the transfer them to a bowl to develop in to fry.
It is really rewarding to breed your own fish ,you should try it.

fishkeepergod

In my pond, the goldfish will spawn from about April to September with most of that in the spring. When I had my indoor goldfish spawn, it was in the winter but close to spring. It will take a female a few weeks to get another batch if eggs if she is ready to do it again. Some females do it continously for a while (mostly in ponds but I have heard of it in aquariums) while others only spawn once a year. I had indoor goldfish for more than a decade and only got eggs once (not that I was trying back then) so you never know! Let them spawn in a tank with lots of room that they are used to instead of in a bowl or small tank. You can then either remove what eggs you can or move the parents (higher yields that way). They would enjoy spawning on soft live plants like java moss, anacharis, hornwort, etc. but will use other things.

Hello!

This is my first time posting here, and we are also very new to Goldfish in general,
so please forgive my ignorance.

My question is reversed: We don't want to breed Goldfish, we want to prevent them
from spawning. Honestly, we don't have the space or resources to get into fish
breeding.

We have a relatively small aquarium, and only got the fish recently. One of them is
'big', and some looking around on the Internet reveals that we most likely have a
'ripe' female, in the company of a male.

For the time being, we have just taken the female out into a separate bowl, hoping
that she will lay her eggs soon there. Once that has happened, we want to put her
back into the main tank, of course.

The questions then:

- Is this a good/recommended method of 'birth control' for Goldfish?
- How long do we have to expect the female to have to stay in that bowl?
- How can we expect the female to become 'ripe' per year?
- What's the best way to take care of a single fish in a plain bowl?

The last question is important, because that bowl doesn't really have a water filter
or anything. We want to make sure she is reasonably comfortable...

Thank you very much for your help!

Tom

Goldfish are hard to stop from spawning in a pond but the good news for you is that they don't usually spawn in aquariums, at least not as often. In the cases where they do, if you do nothing, the goldfish will eat all the eggs and fry that they can find so it would be rare to have any survivors. A female really needs a male there to get the eggs out of her. That, and the fact that being in a bowl is not good for her, are reasons to put her back in the tank. Aquarium goldfish are more apt to spawn with more room, larger fish, good food, and soft places to lay eggs. Some aquarium goldfish spawn often but most do it once a year in the winter or spring. I suggest not keeping a goldfish in a bowl. How big is she? Few females will produce eggs below about 4" in length. Is she just slightly enlarged or really fat? If really fat, she may have dropsy and not eggs. I hope it's eggs!