I have just joined this forum as an emergency measure - I came down this morning to find that my fish have some eggs. I looked frantically through my small collection of books, none of which had any info on what to do in an unplanned situation. I have read though a lot of things posted here and that has helped enormously. Thanks for that.

Following advice here, I have set up a second tank using mostly water from the main tank and moved plants with eggs over to this. There only seem to be a dozen at most, and I am not sure how these will do.

I am still a novice at fish keeping having only kept fish for the last year and a half, so please forgive my ignorant questions.

In my ten gallon tank I have three smallish fancy goldfish - I don't know if they are pure breeds or not and one fancy calico who is at least half as big again as the others and has a different body shape. I've discovered that he is the male and the one I bought with him is the female (red and white). My male is still harassing the female quite relentlessly and she has only produced a dozen eggs (unless more were eaten in the early hours). He seems to be more or less ignoring the others (who are younger). Do I need a tank divider? - what does this look like? I do not have any other tanks.
I only have one other air pump and I think that it is too strong for the small tank with the eggs (10 litre). What do I do next

Sorry about the long post.

If you only have dozen eggs, a breeder net would be enough for you to raise the small ones. You can also use the breeder net to put the female there and let her take a rest.

If you want more eggs, get a breeding mop, or make one yourself. If you do not want more eggs, feed them less.

Good luck!


---Goldfishpal

What is a "breeding mop"? I have never heard of that..........But then, I only have bettas so far. I am hoping to get goldfish someday. I want to learn as much as I can before I get them.

Thanks for the reply Goldfishpal,

I was in a bit of a panic not knowing what to do yesterday.

The male has now calmed down somewhat, so I will leave them as they are for now. I have recently bought some new plants and these are what the fish used for their eggs. I have also recently given them more exciting, higher protein foods like dried bloodworms and daphnia in gell.

I realise after reading more info that my tank is overcrowded and I will have to see if I can get a bigger tank. Perhaps they will have more eggs next time round? Can anyone tell me how soon this is likely to be?

Fire and Ice, Breeding mops is also called spawning mops. It is made of nylon ropes tighting together like a mop. The eggs spawn on the mop would have better chance to survive and less chance been eaten. Usually you would not be there when goldfish spawn, so the number of eggs survive would count on how good they hide. Mop is a good place to hide. You can make one or more floating by hang the mop under a styrofoam or a wine cork.

Fishy, I think they did lay more eggs than you collected. Usually they lay more than hundred eggs at a time, but eat most of the eggs that did not hide well. If you have big gravel at the bottom of the tank, you might have more eggs there hiding in the gap. You might try to move the adult fish temporary to smaller rubbermaid contain for couple of days and see if there would be fry coming out of the tank in the next few days. Remove adult is necessary since fish eat fry too. You would like to lower the water level in the tank to about 6 inches to allow fry floating to the top.

For the beginning three days of fry hatching, you do not have to do much. they will stick to the side of the aqualium and live with their yolk sac. Hard boiled egg yolk is easier to get as their first food.

I heard goldfish can lay eggs every 2 weeks.

---Goldfishpal

Thanks Goldfishpal, that is some good info. I will have to print it up and save it for future reference.

"You learn something new everyday!"

Yes, I'd like to second that - invaluable information. I wish I'd found this forum a year or so ago.

Every two weeks Well I'd better watch out for more spawning behaviour (I might recognise it better this time).

Thanks again.

Well, they've been at it again!

Judging from my fishes behaviour, it looks as if I have one male and three females in my tank.
Spot is a calico fish with a long pretty tail and is the largest fish in the tank. His head is a much rounder shape than the others and he has a small amount of growth on his head. Georgina, who was bought at the same time, is a red fantail with a white tummy, she has two growths on her head a bit like the pom-pom fish but not so big. Hoover is white with red patches - he (I think I should be saying she) has a fan-tail but is beginning to grow a noticeable bump behind his/her head and may turn out to be ranchu? Flounder is a red fantail with an orange tummy and she has a beautiful butterfly tail.

On Monday morning (exactly a week after the last batch of eggs) I came down to find 30-40 eggs in the tank - I'm guessing the others were eaten. This time I noticed that Spot was chasing Hoover.
My first set of eggs turned opaque and some of them got fungus, so I've given up on them hatching - perhaps they were not fertilised? Hopefully the new ones will fare better. I would love to have some little babies to look after.

Addendum: Oops, I've just noticed that I'm showing as male, but that's a lie, I am in fact female!

Good job, fishy! I said that since goldfish would only breed if they are happy and healthy. That means you have taken good care of them. I am sure you would enjoy taking care of baby fish.

If you would like to promote head grow, there are specific food for lionhead or oranda. Usually those food also promore color enhancement, so prepare yourself to expect color changes too.

Have a nice day!


---Goldfishpal

Congrats on your eggs Fishy! hopefully we'll see baby pics real soon!

Thanks Goldfishpal/Devs! I'm so glad that I have happy fishes.

I might try some of that head growth stuff. Do oranda/lion heads have rounder shaped faces than others? One reason I chose Spot was because he has a really cute, almost round face. Spot has a pectoral(?) fin on his back, so I guess he's not a lionhead? I am new to a lot of this so please forgive my ignorance.

I will definately have to borrow a digital camera and get some pics. I really hope that I do have some babies this time. I will have to take some pics of my adult fishes, too.


~Fishy~