I have 4 "spawn happy" males following 2 females in my pond for the past couple of days... No eggs have shown up yet... I am using a 55 gal. as the breeder tank with spawning mops waiting for them when something major happens... The questions I want to ask for advices are:

1) Is it okay to have these fishes together or keep seperately (2 males / 1 female)??

2) And, what is the specified amount of spawning mops needed if there is any for this situation?

How big are your "spawn-happy" fish? I've not heard that term before! The adults are in the 55 gallon tank, or it's for the eggs if you find some?

If you want fertile eggs, you have to keep the males and females together. You could separate them into smaller groups if you wanted fry from a specific pair of fish.

I've never heard anyone specify how many yards of yarn must be in a spawning mop versus mass or length or quantity of fish. For the half dozen goldfish that you have, one commercial spawning mop or homemade one should be enough. You can also harvest eggs from plants like anacharis or the roots of water hyacinth. In those cases, put the plants into the fry pond so they also provide food and cover.

The adult fish are not going to deposit every egg where you want them to; they scatter them around but do prefer soft areas.

Thanks Robyn for your advises...

My comets average about 5" to 6" in length... The 55gal tank I mentioned was for the fishes because its the only biggest tank I have available right now for breeding... I have a 10gal, but thats not going to help...

As for the spawning mops, I made one which is about 8" in length... I plan to make more for future spawning...

"Spawn Happy" was just a word that I made up... I used it because when I was observing my comets, the males were just going crazy over the females... I apologize for the misunderstanding...

Again, Thankyou & Have a Nice Day!! :D

Don't worry, I knew what you meant! I have said to myself, "The fish are spazing again."

Update 7/09/2007: Third Batch of Goldfish Eggs...

Hi Robyn...

My Goldsfishes have laid eggs again for the third straight weekend... This time I followed all the advices you've given... I couldn't seem to find a pet store that sells Methylene Blue... I added Pimafix as soon as I transfered two mops loaded with eggs to a 10gal. tank... This morning (Monday), I see that there are many fertile eggs as well as unfertilized... I tried to remove the good ones but my hands were getting tired & pruned... Can I leave them as is?? I might have asked you this before or that others may have in the past, but I just want to make sure... I tend to worry most of the times, especially for matters dealing with my fishes... :unsure:

Thanks!!!

Infertile or damaged eggs often get fungus. The fungus on one egg may move over to adjacent live eggs and kill them too. If you have just a few non-living eggs, it's ok to leave them. If there are bunches of fungused eggs, try to separate those from the viable, live eggs. If you have a lot of eggs and most are fertile, it should be fine.

I'm proud to announce that after two failed attempts, I finally have goldfish babies!!! :lol:

Since my last post, about a dozen or more of the goldfish eggs have hatched... Still waiting on the remaining ones... Thanks for everything!!! I'll keep you posted on their health from time to time... And maybe I'll post some pictures if its possible...

Again, Thankyou & have a nice day!! :D

Yay!

:)

Hello again!!

Update 7/14: Frys are doing fine at about one week old... Feeding them with egg yolk for now...

I have few question(s) to ask for advice...

First of all, while surfing the net & reading other fry care sites, I read that it is possible to mix egg yolk with oatmeal paste and giving it to them... Is this really true? I just wanted to make sure & get a "second opinion"... So far, they are doing fine with the egg yolk... It's a trip to see "flourecent" frys!!! LOL... (yellow food in their stomach)... :lol:

Another one... Is it okay to siphon out the old water while slowly adding new water simultaniously? I always do this type of method with my pond and another aquarium that is indoors... :unsure:

Thankyou & have a nice day!! :)

I've heard of feeding egg yolk, strained through cheese cloth. I've not heard of feeding oatmeal to fry specifically. By paste, I guess that just means it's wet? Fish should be able to eat oatmeal.

If you're adding new water as you remove old water, some of the water you remove may be new water. So, normally you remove the old water and then add new water. Still, doing it your way is much better than not doing any water change. For tiny fry, you can use air line tubing to siphon the bottom to reduce the risk of removing fry. It's very slow though that way. If the fry are off the bottom, then one of the smaller aquarium vacuum hoses should work to siphon.

Thanks for the info...

I've been doing this type of water change ever since I had my very first tank years ago... I know thats alot of water, but it works... :)

BTW, my goldfishes spawned again today (mid-morning Sunday)... Its the fourth straight weekend... This time I transfered three males & one female in a 25 high tank which was given to me a couple of days ago... Will they ever take a break?? Is it because they are Honeymooning in Paradise?!! (Hawaii) B) :D

Its a good thing, yet in ways its a bad thing... Good because I enjoy them all and it tells me that I'm doing something that is making them live healthy... Bad because I don't have enough tanks, containers, and everything else to keep them... I hope I can manage with this batch...

Thankyou & Have a Nice Day!!!

A female goldfish can grow a new batch of eggs almost every week as long as the weather is good. If you can't handle all those babies, then I suggest doing nothing. The parent goldfish normally will eat all the eggs and fry that they can find. At least that way, the nutrients are reused. How big is your pond? Can you put extra fry out there or is it full?

I guess I can just leave the parents in the pond from now on until I can manage again... My pond is about 600+ gallons and is a rectangular shape which was built above ground...

Thankyou & have a nice day!! :)