hi,
my goldfish pixie layed a wonderful batch of eggs yesterday, probably in the region of 1000, question is are they fertilised or not. My mum noticed the first few at 7am and then let them continue to do their thing until around 1pm and then we took out the parents as they were starting to eat them, i would assume that was adequate enough time for him to do his thing. I asked my dad if the tank smelt different or the water went cloudy as i was in work and he just said the tank smelt of fish (obviously) but nothing unusual and that nemo (the male) was just going around the bottom on top of the eggs.

As for what the eggs look like, well they look a kind of yellowish colour, really quite hard to explain, and some of them do look like theres an inner yolk of somesort, if you get what i mean? no black dots at the moment. Trouble is ive had 3 batches prior to these and 2 have came but they were during the summer. I had another lot in january but they didnt come, whether its due to the coldness i dont know. Could anyone give me advice on how to keep them warm without the aid of a heater. At the moment they are in a window (the tanks usual place, bad i know but the fish seem to like it), in the main living room.

also i cant remember after how many days i would/should notice the black.

any advise would be grateful as i dont want to loose this lot if they are indeed fertilised.

In my experience, if you have a male and a female in a tank and she drops eggs, then they are fertilized - at least far more of them than you really need.

I used to agonize over the fact that they were not fertile, but decided to try anyway. I have hatched out thousands!

That said, at about 70F you have about 4 days from the time of spawning before they hatch. In that time, you desparately need to change out the water of the tank. There is a lot of biological "waste" that is released in the tank during spawning - and this can drive the ammonia/nitrite to horrible numbers. (the source of that "fish smell!")

If you have the temp. at 72-74F your hatch time will be about 3 days. Much warmer than that is not really recommended - the fish hatch too quickly to have time to develop properly in the egg. If the temp is 68-70 it is about 5 days to hatch. 65 -68ish will give you 6-7 days. Much beyond that, the eggs take a looooong time and are more likely to go fungusy before they hatch.

If your house is sooooo cool that the tank's temp is going to drop below 68F, then I would suggest covering the tank well and adding a light. The lid and the light should raise the temp the few degrees it needs.

So: change out as much water as you can take out of that tank. 90% of it if you can. You will not easily be able to take out water for the first week of the fry's life - so do it now. If you have some methelene blue or acriflavine, adding that to the water (the Blue - add enough to make the water Windex blue - the Acriflavine - add 5 drops to 10 gallons). This will keep the fungus that attacks the unfertile eggs from traveling to the fertile eggs and killing them before hatch.

Refill the tank carefully, using the same temp. same pH, etc. water. Only add the water to about 6 inches deep. Add in a small airstone - just bubbline gently enough to keep the surface of the water moving - so you do not get a skum collecting there. REmove all power filtration.

You are going to need a sponge for filtration. You are going to need a source of food for the fry about 2-3 days after hatch.

I never "see the black" in the eggs. This is partly because I am blind ( ) and partly because when I start to see something - they hatch! I have looked at the eggs under the microscope and watched them grow and hatch there. It is facinating. I have 3 fry that actually lived from spawning through to hatch in a dish under the microscope - I watched them grow every few hours. It is amazingly neat!

hi, thanks ever so much for your reply youve been extremely helpful. Last time i left them for 10 days and as nothing seemed to have occurred (as it being january) i thought that by that time and it being cold i had killed anything that would have possibly lived.

i have put the water down to 6 inches in height as i read that any more pressure may deform the eggs. Tonight i will bring the water to room temp and then do a part change or as much as i can without damaging any eggs. The water in my area generally stays the same Ph so i am lucky in that sense.

thanks again and fingers crossed i will be a surrogate mum by this time next wk. as i havent got a glass tank for them and only plastic can you recommend a way of putting air in as i am a little nieve and not sure what an air stone is, i have heard of the sponge filter but again have no real way of attaching it. I do have real plants in it to give some air.

again thanks in advance..

hi,
ive changed the water about 80-90% of my eggs and i am starting to see a difference between the white and clear. I'll know for next that the majority of cases the eggs are fertilised if both male and female are present. Will keep youi posted on if they hatch ..... how can i tell if the white go to fungus as how long after spawned does this occur?

problem solved, they are fertilised, i saw a minute fish in the egg that was stuck on the side of the tank. I was watching it with a magnifying glass, it was soooooo amazing, ive never seen them move in the egg before, i only knew that they were there. Im keeping an eye on him and fingers crossed should hatch over weeked.

It is truly an amazing thing seeing that little curly black thing with eyes climb out of the egg. The fungus ones look fuzzy- you can see they are kinda hairy if you use that magnifying glass . The fungus if you get any -starts after about 2 days. It rapidly spreads so best to deal with it quickly. Good luck to you with the hatching !

hi,
my babies hatched over the weekend and i saw them hatching which was amazing. I thought they were having spasam attacks at first but then after watching them for a while i realised they were trying to either get out of/ get rid of the egg.

At the moment now they have stopped clinging to the tank as much and swimming around and im feeding them with liquifry, problem is though as i have no filter as the type of tank is really 2 small for one and plastic ............does anyone have any idea how to the clean the redundant eggs from the bottom, they dont appear to have gone to fungas but i dont want to leave them in there. I have an old syringe unused from a computer ink refill pack that i had but does anyone have any other ideas???

any help would be great or if you can or any filters for a small plastic tank.