We have a 100(?) gallon pond with ordinary feeder goldfish. They are growing like crazy. We love to sit by the pond in the evening and just watch them.

How can I get them to breed? Can I tell a male from a female? A friend told me I need to have a shelf just below the top of the water for the female to lay her eggs. Then the others won't be able to eat the eggs. But if it is too little water for the others to get to the eggs, isn't it too little water for the female to lay them?

How will I know when a female is ready to lay her eggs? Is there anything I should do to protect her or the eggs?

Do the gold fish need to be a certain size or age before they breed? They were pretty small when we bought them - 1 1/2" maybe, but how they are at least 2-3". Hard to measure because they won't hold still. :lol:

Will the toads we are trying to get rid of eat the eggs? Will the toads eat the fish? So far they haven't eaten any fish. All are accounted for.

Any advise will be appreciated. :)

If you have a nice pond, you don't need to do much. The goldfish will spawn on their own when they are old enough. Adding soft plants like anacharis, floating plants with soft roots like water hyacinth, and marginals will give them soft places on which to lay their eggs.

My section on sexing goldfish is at
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/gfish3.htm#sex

A shelf won't do much good. Both parents must be able to go wherever they spread their eggs, preferably some place soft. Once the eggs hatch, if not eaten, then having nocks and crannies in which the fry can hide will improve their chances of not being eaten. Adult goldfish will eat most eggs and fry that they can find. Luckily, they lay so many that a few usually survive. If they all survived, all our ponds would be beyond capacity from only a portion of a single spawning. If you want more fry, you can remove eggs or fry to smaller ponds to grow larger.

Females may be injured during spawning if they are pushed into rocks, etc. so remove sharp-edged rocks and other things. They may also try to spawn in filters if they can get in so prevent that.

Goldfish tend to first spawn when about 3 or 4 inches long but aren't really mature until a few inches larger. I've had adults that were 14" long.

The toads won't eat the eggs.

Good luck!

We bred by accident...I saw a baby today!!!!! Since they use the pickeral weed as a snack shack I would say most of the egg laying is in there, it's stashed in a corner of the pond. This is our 2nd year with these fish ( with a fancy and red/white being alittle older ) so I'm calling them 2 year olds. They're all between 6-8 inches long. I caught the fancy by accident yesterday...she's a girl. The fry is mottled brown and about 1/2 inch long. I don't have frogs, and it didn't have legs. :rolleyes: When the cold kills off the pea soup algae bloom, maybe we'll see the little critter. :D

Thanks again, Robyn. I guess I'll just let nature take it's course and hope we get some fry.

I used to have aquariums with live bearers. Lots of babies. Lots of fun. But we downsized when we retired to Florida and I have no room for an aquarium any more. So we built the pond instead. The waterfall is beautiful and I love it!!!

The feeders we bought are now twice the size in only a month or so. And a friend gave me 3 of her goldfish because her pond was getting over crowded as the fish are growing. They are probably at least 6" or more. I'm guessing they will be the first to spawn, if any of them do. I hope one is a male, and the other 2 are female. I'm going out right now to see if I can figure it out.

Now, if we can just get rid of those toads, life would be perfect.
:)

Thanks again.