I'm a newby to this, I went gf shopping the other day, and came accross a male that looked ready. (white spots on gills and fins) I brought him home with me and he duly started chasing my 2 big females in the tank, but am not sure if any of the girls are ready they aren't any fatter than usual. I've put a spawning mop in the tank but nothing has happened yet. Should I seperate the females and slowly raise the temp to try to get them ready. I have quite a few other fish in the tank inc an eely type thing. I don't know what to do for the best! Please help me someone.

Hi Elge, and !
If your girls are ready depends on a few things, but to determine first if you need to separate them, here are a few options...
How big are the girls? Bigger than the male? The bigger the female, the less of a chance that they get too stressed out from chasing, especially if he has another "victim" to bother. When the females appear stressed, trying to hide, sitting on the bottom more frequently or have any signs of injury from the rough chasing, then they need to be separated.
And besides the slow raising of the temperature (it doesn't have to be much, a couple of degrees is fine), you can feed them more frequently. Not more food with each feeding, just more smaller feedings during the day, with something higher protein like frozen bloodworms. That will give the eggs a chance to develop more, and get the females ready.

If there isn't any sign of eggs after a few days, I would give the females a rest (separation) and keep on doing the more frequent feeding. Take the divider out after a week and see if they are ready then....

Thanx ranchugirl. I've got two girls in there that he is interested in. They are both bigger than him, one quite a lot and one just a bit. Do you think I should leave them all in the same tank and hope for the best and remove any eggs that do arrive or should I take out the male and 2 females out till they do their business then remove the fish.

Also, the male keeps going to lay at the bottom of the tank not the females. And he seems to have stopped chasing a bit now. Still eating ok and everything else. Think he's tired

how big are they, And how big is there tank? also when i want my gold fish to breed i usaully fully change there water and give them lots of food
(mine only breed with sudden changes) good luck

Elge, you can try it either way. I prefer to leave the parents in their tank, and give them something where they can deposit their eggs into - a bunch of silk plants, floating around, will do just fine. Goldfish tend to use these kinds of places to deposit their eggs, and when its done, all I do is take the plants out with the eggs sticking to them and put them into a different container with the same tank water than the parents came from. Its a thing of personal preference really....

They spawned on sunday, looks like I'm expecting about 2 hundred of them. Thanks for all your help. I can see them inside their eggs. Should they be moving around in the eggs?

I never paid attention to them moving around really, the eggs are so tiny, its kind of hard to see anyway. As long as you can see two eyes in them, you are good!
If you have pure Methylene blue, put that into the egg tank. That keeps from fungus developing on the unfertilized eggs and spredding to the fertilized ones. If you don't have it, just keep watching them and take out the unfertilized eggs as you see them.
Sunday, hm? That means around tomorrow or Friday they should start hatching. What a nice surprise for Easter!!
Now its the time to have some thoughts on how you are gonna feed them once they get hungry. Don't worry, they won't eat right after they hatched, they have an egg sac attached to them that they empty out first. Thats the time when they mostly cling to whatever in the tank - glass, plants, etc. When they start freely swimming, thats the time to start feeding them.
What kind of foods have you considered? The best and most nutritious foods are either a microworm culture (if you want, I have some, all you need to do is email me your addy to RAJ-Pecher@msn.com, and I'll send you some), or freshly hatched brine shrimp. The brine shrimp eggs you can find in any pet store, and instructions come with it. Then there is Liquifry for Egglayers, also available in pet stores. Add a few drops at the time numerous times during the day of that stuff. Some pet stores offer frozen freshly hatched brine shrimp, that saves you the trouble of hatching the eggs yourself, although I have noticed that my fry weren't too eager about that stuff. They seem to like things that move, and that they can catch!
A simple sponge filter should be the filtration of choice, anything stronger will suck the babies in and kill them. I always have a sponge filter hanging around in one of my tanks, that way it stays cycled, and all I have to do is pop it into the fry tank when needed....

Right, where to start? Since last post at least 30 haave hatched, they look like little shrimps! Haven't got any methylene blue, would it be ok to use salt in there? If so at what %? As for feeding I'm in uk so don't think posting it would be such a good idea! I bought some liquifry no 1 for egglayers. I did order some microworm culture but it hasn't arrived yet.

As for a filter I bought the smallest throw away one possible but am worried they will still get sucked up it. When you say sponge filter, is there any way of making one?

Ps I've got more fat fish!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm gonna be over run with them!

Hatched already? Wow, that is fast!!
Found a air driven sponge filter on a UK website....
http://www.aquatics-online.co.uk/listsecti...&retp=8&rets=15

I have done simple sponge filters myself, and it isn't really that hard if you are a bit handy (or have somebody who does it for you ) All you need is a powerhead, a piece of plastic PVC tubing that fits over the intake of the powerhead, drill an endless amount of holes into that pipe, and get as many sponges (sponges that are used as mechanical filter media are fine), cut a center hole the diameter of the pipe into them, put them over the pipe so all the holes are covered, plug it in, and you are done!
So, with the microworm culture on the way, you are pretty much all set up! I haven't tried salt on freshly hatched fry yet, so I would just watch them closely for now....

Thanx sooooooooo much for all your help andrea

All hatched now. At least 150 of them!!!!!

Had a bit of a mission Just had a 4 1/2 ft tank crack on me. Bloody water everywhere.

I had a white spot problem so set it up as a hospital tank. I'm just hoping it's not in baby's tank. That's why I asked about the salt.

And i've just bought a sponge filter off eBay so hopefully they will be ok til it comes.

How much worry???????