Well i was just condinitioning them for their spawn, but now they are chasing her around like that video of the ranchus and ordandas. But it isnt continuous, they will ram into her and they look like they are actually attatched when they are swimming (because he is like stuck to her butt!) But then she will stop for a break and they will stop too, but then they will start again in a matter of second... do you think ill have eggs? Or is this normal behavior?

im adding to the post above...

the two males seem to distract each other, because when they are chasing the female, they stop short and run to the other male....

Should i take a male out?

Unless they are harming each other, I would just leave them alone and watch.

My males stop too many time to go eat around... so my biggest fear is that all of the eggs will be eaten and then i will have to spawn again!

Several points....

Almost every time mine have spawned I have always worried that there were not enough eggs to bother with attempting a hatch. Each and every time I ended up with at least 100 fry - several times far far more. The fertile eggs are nearly invisible.

So you most likely have far more viable eggs there than you are prepared to care for anyway.

If they were actively chasing and dropping eggs, I would take out the mats that hold those eggs now. They are most likely done for the day. You do not have to see the males squirting milt all over and being crazy to get the job done. Some have a very gentlemanly type approach to the whole matter. Chances are, they have gotten the job done quite nicely.

So pull the mats/mops and get them set up in the hatching tank. Warm the tank. Add the Methlene Blue. Set your sponge filter going. Figure out what you are going to feed the fry and get that ready so it is a go when the fry are ready.

If, for some reason, you get no fry, they will most likely try agan in a bit. Watch for the next storm front to come through...... A single season with a properly prepped set of parents will yield at least 2 successful spawnings - if done naturally, you can still get 1-2 thousand eggs per spawning and then probably several other sets of eggs in the 100s. Prepping takes at least 6 months, so you are still running off what ever was done for your fish last fall......

yea there is no more chasing going on... and i dont think i have any eggs . I watched them for over 2 hours but nothing happened lol. Oh well, i guess ill just try again in the breeding tank now..

But should i have the two males and one female again, or just one male and one female?

hello fish breeder, do you mind if i ask a few questions......... what kind of goldfish do you have and how many inches are they? how many gallons were they in when they "spawned" (im not sure if they did if you have no eggs) i was just asking for my own reference in trying to become a knowlegeable (sp?) breeder, thanks.

If you are not specifically going for a cross between two identified outstanding fish, it is often easier to spawn fish in trios or larger groupings. So go ahead and add in the second male if your tank will support him.

ok thanks guys im only breeding fantails.. so they are nothing special. I put the two males in with the female, so he would support her, like daryl said. Not counting the tail, they are about 2 1/2 or 3 inches in a 75-gallon. Is that too big of a tank, because it might be too much space to be chased around in lol. Thank you so much for your help so far

ok! so this morning i woke up at 5:30 and i watched my goldfish until about 8:30 or 9:00... and they were spwaning really wild and non-stop (like that video with the orandas and the ranchus. But in the end things began to slow down... and i got no eggs again!! This female has a fat stomach and has her anal vent sticking out...

Why doesn't the female ever drop eggs?? Are there any certain reasons why she doesnt drop them?

What does it look like when the females is actually dropping the eggs?? Because i dont know what to look for, so i get confused... a video would be great!

75 gallons is great, and should not be too big, just make sure you have something in there for the eggs to stick to so you can take it out after (see below for more info on that).

Just to let you know it can happen, my fish chased each other around like they were about to spawn for almost a year before the females actually dropped eggs, so it is possible they are just "practicing". Sometimes I swore it looked like my female fish were fatter during that time, but they never dropped any eggs until last month. I did not know that the anal vent sticking out meant they were ready to drop eggs, my female's vents always seem to stick out and I did not notice a change when they were spawning, but I wasn't looking that closely either. Did you read that somewhere? I am NOT doubting you, just curious as I don't remember hearing that before.

Also, I am not 100% sure on this, but the term "spawning", I believe, actually means that the fish are dropping eggs and/or the males are spraying milt, what you are seeing right now *I think* is just chasing and breeding behavior. I think that is how it got confused further up the thread that people thought your fish DID drop eggs already. If someone else confirms this, you may just want to say chasing/breeding behavior rather than spawning until the fish actually drop eggs, just so some people don't get confused....lol, like me!

When my females dropped eggs it wasn't what I expected at all, I thought they would shoot out in a huge bunch all at once, like I have seen salmon do. But what I saw happen was just a few coming out at a time, and I actually only saw them dropping once or twice, mostly it was just that they were all over the bottom of the tank and stuck to the filter and stuff. The eggs were also much smaller than I thought, just little white/clearish things about the size of a round pin head. I never saw the males spray their milt, but they obviously did since I got fry. Usually when fish spawn they do it very early in the morning too, so I was just lucky I saw it the one time, they have spawned 2 more times since and I missed the whole thing because I did not get up until 6:30 am.

Are you ready for babies? Do you have a breeding mop/mat in the tank or a separate tank to move the adults into once they drop eggs? The other thing I did not know is that the eggs stick to EVERYTHING and you cannot get them off. I always thought I would just take a few out (my fish dropped 1000's of eggs) and put them in a smaller tank, but because they stick to everything you cannot do that, so you either need a breeding mop or mat on the bottom for them to stick to, then you can move those into another tank, or you need a separate tank to put the adults into after the eggs are dropped-and that tank needs to be something they can stay in a long time because you cannot move the fry until they are at least 6 weeks old. And fry are TONS of work, they are little poo machines, lol! Sorry if you already knew all of that, just sharing some of the mistakes I made.

So just be patient, and keep watching them chase. Sometimes that can go on for ages! Just make sure the female does not get too tired or stressed. Doinga large water change can help too, so tonight if they have not dropped eggs yet, try changing like 50% of the water, and maybe make it a teeny bit warmer in the process. I am not a breeding expert, not by a long shot, I am just going off of my experiences. Good luck!

Wow thanks jen626! Yoy are right that it isnt "spawning" it is "breeding behavior" I am definitely sure that her anal vent is sticking way out (i have seen pictures of females before a spawning process and it looks like theirs). The males seem so ready to spawn and are just ready for her to drop, but she just doesnt drop for them, she just kinda brushes them off (or so it seems, but i wouldnt really know lol since it is my first attempt at spawning goldfish) They didnt spawn and they are done chasing for the night, so ill do a 50% water change tonight.

I am a little nervous about the fry because i cant keep them in the 75-gallon... all i can put them in is a 10-gallon tank, just for now until i get a larger tank. Because the 75-gallon is the tank my goldfish live in, and i would not want to put all four of them in the 10-gallon lol because thats just cruel. i have a 35-gallon hexagon tank, but i dont think a hexagon is good for the babies, or is it?

Thank you so much for your help so far everyone!

ugh ok this morning absolutely nothing happened... i warmed the temp. before i went to bed and the next morning they did not touch her ONCE!... i think i may just give up lol because i dont want to stress them out...

Darn...well, not for lack of trying on your part!

I think what finally made mine spawn was a huge weather change...i live in Seattle and it had been like 60-65 degrees for ages and then BOOM one day it was 90. They spawned the next morning. Storms can often encourage spawning too, although you have no control over that, lol!

You can definitely start out fry in a 10 gallon tank if you don;t have too many, that is what I have mine in. But it depends on how many you want to try and raise. I only took out like 70 eggs out of 1000, and I now have about 40 fry that are a month old. I am glad I did not start out trying to raise 1000, plus I don't have the room. Once they are bigger (like 8 weeks maybe? not sure on this) they should be able to go into the 35, I don't see why not, although I am certainly not a breeding expert. The only thing with a hex tank is that they are usually taller rather than long, which makes accessing the tank harder.

So keep watching, and maybe you will get lucky and get a big weather change that will encourage them! Good luck!

ok so again this morning they had breeding behavior, but no eggs dropped!!!

When does the female drop her eggs?? Are there certain circumstances?? What does it look like also?

When my females dropped eggs it wasn't what I expected at all, I thought they would shoot out in a huge bunch all at once, like I have seen salmon do. But what I saw happen was just a few coming out at a time, and I actually only saw them dropping once or twice, mostly it was just that they were all over the bottom of the tank and stuck to the filter and stuff.

The eggs were also much smaller than I thought, just little white/clearish things about the size of a round pin head. I never saw the males spray their milt, but they obviously did since I got fry. Usually when fish spawn they do it very early in the morning too, so I was just lucky I saw it the one time, they have spawned 2 more times since and I missed the whole thing because I did not get up until 6:30 am.

I am not sure exactly what makes them actually drop eggs, but I think I said before, mine chased and had breeding behavior for almost a year (off and on) before they actually spawned. Extreme weather changes and storms can trigger it, sometimes water temp changes too-although I think you have tried that already. It's possible that your fish are not quite ready yet and are just practicing for the real thing. I hope not though! I know it is tough to be patient but those fish have minds and reproductive systems of their own!

thanks jen626 this morning there was little chasing and no eggs... but i dont think i can wake up this early anymore lol! I have had guppy babies, molly babies, zebra danio babies, betta babies, and otto catfish babies, but none of those were as hard to get as goldfish fry lol . Well i think ill just put them back in their regular tank and give them a nice break and so they can all be together for a while, then ill try again later! Thanks again for everything everyone!

ok so they are in their regular tank and i wake up to the two males and the femals vigorously spawning! This time its stronger than ever... so i took the extra female out... cause she was just standing there. And now they are still going and im just waiting for eggs (hoping that they landed on plants lol)

YEESSSSS!!!! they had egggs!!!!!!!!!! Im soo happy right now... but im not sure if they are fertilized, are they a whitish color when fertilized? Cause i saw milt clouding the tank, but im not sure if the eggs have to be clear... cause mine have a whitish tint to them.

ok all the eggs are dead cause i dont think they were fertilized... now i have to start from square 1 again...

Not completely square 1: you know they're ready for it and capable and now its just waiting for the next time. And if they're anything like mine, you dont have to wait too long :-)

How do you know all the eggs are dead? In my experience, even if I see tons of white, unfertile eggs and there is fungus, I often have gotten hundreds of fry ANYWAY. IT is the nearly invisible eggs that are the ones that will produce fry.

i didnt have any invisible ones and today i looked in the tank and they were all fungusy and white... so i know there were hundreds of eggs all white and fuzzy