Well after my shock of the adults killing my babies last Saturday, I have now had a pleasant surprise this morning. On Saturday I removed some 'newly laid' eggs from the tank and put them in a very small tank with a couple of inches of water. They just hatched out this morning! I counted about seven or eight, but there may well be more hiding under/around the plant.

I have no external aeration or filtration, but will be buying a pump/filter/airstone tomorrow. I am hoping that the plant will provide enough oxygen for the next 24 hours (please correct me if I am wrong).

Hopefully these babies have a bit more luck than their earlier brothers/sisters but at the same time I am concerned about how few there are. I guess that time will tell...

congrats - im new to having goldie fry but mine have had babies too - they are all free swimming now- 5 days old - make sure you get a sponge filter and some liqufry food for them

Sounds like your off to a great start.
They will hide for the first few days.
After the 3rd day, they'll start looking for food.
If they won't eat, try live baby brine shrimp if you can find a seller.

Thanks for replying,

Congrats on your babies Spacebux.

My babies are only one and a half days old and swimming occasionally (only one casualty so far). I have bought some liquifry and some brine shrimp eggs. I increased the water to about three inches using airline as a syphon and I intend to put some more in tomorrow.

I have tested out the airstone in a bucket, but I think that it is too powerful for such a small tank (only 20cm X 13cm) I would like to put them in a bigger tank so I could use the airstone, but I am afraid to move them now in case I damage them.
I have heard that it is dangerous to regulate the airflow in the tubing if the pump was not designed for it - is that true? Would making holes higher up in the tubing be a good way to lessen the air coming into the tank?

~ Fishy - a new and rather anxious fish mother

Congratulations!

What I did was not using air stones at all. But I did change water every day or even half day sometimes. I only keep them in three inch water. I moved them to larger tank at three weeks with filter turned down to the lowest and separate fry from waterfall using a tank divider, but there were still casuaties with that moving. Every change I made, there were always some casuaties.

Good luck!

---Goldfishpal

I have not moved babies to a new tank yet, I have decided to wait until they are a bit older and stronger. They are three days old now. I managed to put in an airstone with a very limited flow of bubbles. I cut the airline before it goes into the tank and used a peg to regulate what gets past the cut. This gets over the pump overheating because of too much air resistance (which would probably happen without the cut).

I have approx 8 - 9 babies only, so I am very wary of killing them. I found one more dead baby this morning - presumably one of the weaker ones I had seen just sitting around the bottom of the tank.
The ones that are left all seem quite strong and go quite wild feeding when I put in the liquifry. I can just make out their mouths moving as they catch the little particles. They now have tiny tails - cute. I am cleaning uneaten food using a small plasic pipette. I intend to keep a photo diary to map their progress and I will post these (via Koko if I have not made my hundredth post if that is okay) at a later date.

My adult male Spot was chasing again this morning (but no more eggs).

I will keep you posted...

~Fishy

Congrats go out to fishy and spacebux for their new babies! It simply amazes me how so many people on this forum manage to accomplish that. I had always thought that goldfish breeding was very hard to do. I'm totally impressed!

Wow, Fishy, thats great about your fry surviving!! Keep up the good work! If you want, you can email me the pictures as well, and I will post them for you. Koko has been extremely busy at work the last 10 days or so, and I doubt she has much time even turning on her computer. So feel free to email me the pictures in jpg format to RAJ-Pecher@msn.com, just put your username in the subject line, so I know where it comes from!!

Well, it's mixed news. I have only five fry surviving now. For some reason, I lost three today . I did a partial water change and used some airline to syphon old water and debris out.

As well as liquifry, I have started feeding them brine shrimp eggs with no shells. It is funny to see the orange filling up their little tummies!
Each fish is starting to develop a personality - there is one little daredevil who likes to swim across the bubble stream as fast as he/she can. I wonder what to name that one?!
I have just seen one new baby from the few eggs I took out the tank a 2-3 days ago - something I wasn't really expecting. Spot seems to be chasing the girls so much.

I have mixed feelings about how it is going. I really hope the remaining babies survive but they are so delicate.

I will have to get round to getting the pics onto the computer, then I will e-mail them to you Ranchugirl, thanks for that.

Sorry to hear you lost some of your fry. Perhaps a suggestion Ranchugirl gave to another member regarding water change might help prevent more fry losses.



I read a temperature change of 3F degrees or more will kill most or all the fry.

To help make the task easier get one of those digital thermometers sold at supermarkets or kitchen gadget stores. NOT a fever thermometer. Cost around US$11. They are fast and easy to read. They read degrees in both C/F.

Well, despite my best efforts, my last fry died on Sunday aged 9 days. I suspect it was the temperature changes. We do not have the heating on at night, but outside it has only been a few degrees Celcuis, then getting up to 15-17 during the day. Obviously the inside temperature does not vary that much, but it must be more than a few degrees F. Thanks for all of the advice from everyone. I might try raising fry when I have more equipment (including a heater to keep the temperature constant).