My goldfish had eggs again, but this time they are fertile!!!! Im so excited . But i just have two little questions.

Would you advise that i keep the light on or off in the tank in which the eggs are?

The temperature in my tank is 80 degrees farenheit, and i cant get it lower!! Is it okay for the eggs to be in here? What would be the best temperature?

Thanks you soo much to anyone who replies to this thread!

The lights, themselves, do not matter. I like them on so I can see the hatching fry - but it does not make a difference.

The temperature DOES. Turning the lights out may help cool your tank. It is said that most fish eggs do the best when hatched at 68-70F. 68 for the single tailed variety and 70 for the double. Veils, pearls, bubbles and other "extreme fish" can do well in 72F. The cooler the water (under 68F) the longer it takes for the fry to hatch - and if the eggs take too long, it is possible for fungus to take many of them.

The warmer the water, the faster the fry will hatch. In really warm water, they can hatch in 2 days. It is hypothesised that fish that do not have at least 3.5-4 days of development will have a low percentage of viable fry - and/or fry that are somehow "wrong" in their development. The temperatures seem to force the fry to hatch before they are ready and many (in come cases, the majority) will not make it.

I would suggest that you turn off the lights. Take off the lid and blow air across the surface. Set up your sponge filter with bubbler going NOW - it will start to cycle even as you wait to hatch the fry. If you did not transfer the eggs from the tank they were laid in, now is also the time to change 90% + water. The water that eggs are laid in is usually heavy in ammonia - and this is not a good environment for hatching. You can replace the water with water that is a bit cooler - but do not shock those eggs.

Be prepared, for the eggs will hatch quickly at those temps! And good luck!

....okay so all of the eggs turned as white as snow AGAIN... why do EVERY egg i have turn white? Maybe they werent fertilized? Its hard to believe that they all just went bad because i have had all kinds of eggs before, and only a few of them go bad.

What can i do to prevent eggs from turning white? If they weren't fertilized, How can i make sure they are fertilized?

Also i dont even know what i am looking for... what are the eggs SUPPOSED to look like? (i have already gotten millions of descriptions, so pictures would be great)

I do not know where you live, but if it is mid-summer, it is very late in the season for fry. IF these eggs were produced this past winter and held for this long by the female, chances are that they are "old" and not very fertile.

It is possible that you do not have a male in the tank.

It is possible that the "white" eggs you are seeing are just some of them - and you are not seeing the fertile ones. I would give them about 4-5 days before giving up on them.

these eggs are about 2 weeks long (since the female just dropped eggs about 2 weeks ago) And lol i know i have a male because milt came out of him lol. I see that mostly all the eggs are fungusy, except for about 20 (and there might be more hidden in plants) and these other 20 are fertile with little eyes looking out at me! And i can also see the spine of the babies in the egg! I was watching and all of a sudden i saw one wiggle and move around in the egg (getting in another position maybe to get comfortable lol) Im so excited! but im not goona get too excited yet, cause they might not make it.

Are goldfish babies hardy? or will most of them die? Because if i only get like 15 i will be afraid that they will die easily

Very exciting. Good luck!

Congrats on the fertilised eggs. If they are 2 weeks old i think they should have hatched by now, but i could be wrong. Mine usually take 3-4 days. could it be that you didnt see the female lay more eggs? Hows everything going today?

I expect you meant 2 days.......

Goldfish fry are usually set up by nature to survive. They are given what they need to survive to adulthood in standard environments. That said, you need to realize that there are multiple factors acting against their helath.

The first thing you need to realize is that goldfish do not care for their young. Because of this, many young will perish from predators and many other reasons. To counteract this problem, fish lay thousands of eggs, to insure that at least 2-3 will survive to breeding age. MAny of the fry will not survive, simply because their genetics is not structured properly.

The "fancier" the fish - meaning the more mutations it carries - the more "delicate" the fry will be. In a fish such as a pearlscale - very far down the scale of "fancy" and "mutated", you will not have very many that survive, and even fewer that represent the breed. The other end of the scale (commons, comets, etc.) will produce more fry that are naturally viable.

Once you are past the genetic anomolies, the enviroment will have a HUGE impact on the surviving fry. They can live in many conditions, but are sensitive to many others. You ned to find a method to keep them fed and clean - one that does not involve great water movement or disturbance of the water. You need to find a healthy source of food that is readily available and very nutricious. They need to be fed often. You need to keep the water pristine in all ways.

If your fish are hatched, now is the time to set up the food source if you are hatching your own brine shrimp. If not, you need to plan NOW what you are going to do and find a supply of food. You should have already set up a sponge filter and set it going. It will help you cycle the tank - but will not do it right away. You need to test the water at least once a day and ammend it.

Good luck. I hope you have little baby fish to enjoy for a LOOOONG time!!!!

thank you soo much daryl! That was the information i needed! Lol i meant that my goldfish has been making the eggs inside her for 2 weeks lol. But she dropped them two days ago. i have had a sponge filter running in the tank for about 2 years (because i have bred many other fish before). Im praying that at least a few of these hatch because i see that only a few are fertilized.

AHHHH!!! I SEE TWO LITTLE HATCHED BABIES!! They look healthy with a straight spine and stuff, but i hope they will survive! They didnt hatch from any of the eggs that i saw, so there must be more fertilized eggs than i thought! How long does it take for them to start swimming?? Also will they be ok with all of the fungusy and fuzzy eggs at the bottom? Cause there are a lot of those lol

can u post pics of the fry?

If you can carefully suction out any huge clumps of fungusy eggs with a turkey baster or the like, you can do that successfully. Other than that, I would leave them strictly alone right now.

They should be up and swimming in about a day in the temps you have described. HAve food ready.

i tried taking some pics lol but they are to small, so when they are about a week or so old i will try to take some. I ACTALLU SAW ONE BABY COME OUT OF ITS EGG!! It was such a great sight to see ! But heres the sad part, i already saw about 2 or 3 dead babies and i dont want to get the clumps of fungusy eggs out because i dont want to disturb the babies . Bjut if this batch doesnt work out, i know that i can get a batch without so many fungusy eggs lol because this batch had an ENORMOUS amount of funfusy eggs! But thank you all so much for your help! I appreciate it 100%

How exciting for you to see a fry hatch!!
Remember that it has been said before.. not all fry are viable, I have seen a few skeletons of fry in the pond too. I know how hard it is to watch them actually become little fish and then not have them survive.. it is sad but it is mother nature working.

yea none of the babies survived all of them are now at the bottom and are all white and puffy (they look like the eggs!) Why is this? Why did they all die? Did the fungusy eggs have something to do with the deaths of these babies?

hi im adding to the post above....

none of the babies survived all of them are now at the bottom and are all white and puffy (they look like the eggs!) Why is this? Why did they all die? Did the fungusy eggs have something to do with the deaths of these babies?

Also next time i breed i might use methylene blue in the tank with the eggs... is this a good idea? Will it kill/harm the eggs? Will it kill/harm the newly hatched babies? I am just wondering if it is safe to keep eggs and fry in a tank with methylene blue, or would it just be safer if i didnt use methylene blue. If i should put it in should i put it in before or after the eggs come out of the female?

Thanks!!