How to Breed Goldfish Successfully
Breeding common goldfish is tricky, let alone fancy varieties.
Considering a 20-gallon tank is needed for keeping parent goldfish healthy, and as many as 10,000 eggs can be laid by any female at one time, you shouldn’t attempt to breed goldfish without adequate tank space.
Temperatures also need to be gradually adjusted to stimulate changing seasons during breeding, pre-spawning and spawning periods (look up fish breeding guides for the right temperature).
Quality Breeds
The quality of the offspring depends on the parents. Choose fish exhibiting qualities such as good fins, body size, shape and color. Healthy young fish from two to four years of age at four to six inches make good breeders.
Conditioning The Parents
Healthy strong parents spawn more readily and have a higher fertility rate.
For healthy, viable eggs in females and good milt in males, feed them heavily with nutritious well-balanced diets of high-protein food.
Add thick foliage, fine floating plants or sponge filters for a spawning site.
Mating Parents
You’ll know your goldfish are ready to spawn when their colors intensify.
Fish start grouping together, and a few males may single out and chase a partner vigorously through the water into plants.
When mating, the male pushes the female and both gyrate from side to side. The female expels her eggs for fertilization, and the eggs then stick to the plants or sponge filters where they remain till they hatch.
Spawning periods may take up to a few days. As goldfish have absolutely no parenting instincts, be sure you remove adults from the tank, or the eggs will get devoured.
Egg Development
The eggs resemble tiny transparent bubbles. Fertile ones are pale yellow, infertile ones opaque white. Remove infertile eggs immediately, as they get covered with fungus within a day.
Once eggs are fertilized, pigmented eyes, small spots and a beating heart take shape after two to three days. On the fifth to seventh day, larval fish with yolk sacs on their bellies burst our thereafter and cling to plants and the tank sides, resting most of the time.
A few days after, they break free for food. Coloring starts after a month or so.
Caring for Fry
Feed your fry nutritious foods four to six times daily for the first few weeks.
A solution of hard-boiled egg yolk with water makes an excellent first food, as do live foods such as daphnia and brine shrimp. You can also feed them commercial powdered fry food available from fish shops.
As fry are extremely delicate, water conditions should not undergo sudden changes. Ensure good and stable water conditions for survival.
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Aug 17th 2007
1:59 AM
How do you breed goldfish in a 4 litre aquarium!
Mar 8th 2009
12:00 PM
heres a question
do you need to have that much water to have them actually breed ?
can i succesfully breed mine in a 21 litre tank?
Apr 9th 2009
6:45 AM
how to bread gold fish in a small aquarium about 20 litres
Apr 10th 2009
10:34 PM
Im ready to breed goldfish how do you tell the difference if there pregnant or male and female?
Apr 10th 2009
10:35 PM
how do you tell the difference if your goldfish is male female or pregnant?
Apr 19th 2009
1:22 PM
how can I start fish breeding like gold fish, goffi,shordtail and molifish?
Jun 7th 2009
6:22 PM
u can tell what sex they are by looking down from the top of your tank.
the female is fat on 1 side but slimer on the other and male is the same size on both sides.
u can tell if their pregnant after a couple of weeks of they get quite fat but make sure u havent over fed them or that will be why their fat
Jun 8th 2009
8:55 PM
Fish don’t get pregnant. They lay eggs, which are fertilized by the male in the water. This is not pregnancy.
Sep 5th 2009
2:13 PM
how can i remove gold fish egg from aquarium to move the other site. in other word i am looking for substance that act as anti-adhisive for egg
Sep 7th 2009
12:36 PM
i have a 5 gallion tank. i have fancy tall golde fish i have 3 of them and i dont know if i have a male. HELP
Sep 22nd 2009
3:45 PM
I have slowly warmed the water with them in it temp is 79~80f, how long do it takes for them to lay eggs? and how long can i keep them at this temp? both fist are 2yold 3~4inch commet goldfish, i may have 2males or 2females im not sure. its been 3~4hr so far.
Oct 3rd 2009
4:19 PM
Ok i get but do i take the goldfishes that i had ggs out of the water or i let them in there?
Oct 31st 2009
4:38 AM
plzz u can tell me how will u knw female is pregnant gold fish reply soon as possible….
Nov 23rd 2009
1:50 AM
Ur crazy, goldfish need massive tanks if u wanna breed them, i have a 20 litre aquarium, but you need at least 100 litres for healthy fry.
I got a 220 litre aquarium to breed comet goldfish. u need a sand filter or loads of plants, and possibly live plants.
Commons like comets ( I have ) should be put in 70 litres of water for any size, but fancy like fantails need about 40 litres each.
when males are ready to breed, they will have small pimples on their gill cover known as tubercules, while the female be wonky to 1 side.
if you want to see if your goldfish is about to lay eggs, feed her mashed up frozen peas, the skin taken off.
They should do poo soon, but if not for a very long time, they are constipated.
it is impossible to breed goldfish in a 5 litre aquarium, and also very hard in a tank.
If you are breeding go0ldfish, you need a 20 – 50 litre aquarium for the fry, while eggs you need to put them in a tank with no weight at all, as they will be crushed, and will not hatch.
Good luck with your fish!
Feb 14th 2010
8:42 PM
Great post on Goldfish Breeding! You’ve definitely answered many questions that many goldfish keepers are wondering about.
If people follow some simple steps anyone can have a successful breeding of goldfish. It’s not that hard.
People can also buy a medication that will treat the eggs that will help prevent fungus from forming on the fish eggs.
Great blog will stop by again!
Sincerely,
Jamie Boyle
Goldfish Care Guy
Mar 2nd 2010
1:42 PM
I am breeding ranchus for the first time.I have 6 in a 160 litre tank.Is this big enough?If and when they breed,would it be better to move the eggs or the fish?Is there any difference for breeding ranchus?How can I create chocolate or blue ranchus?Can you create yellow(whole)?…sorry for all the questions!!..look foward to any advice from experienced breeders!!!
Mar 16th 2010
4:07 PM
how could i know the different between male and female and i want that to be breed in my aqurium
regards
Mar 16th 2010
4:11 PM
how do you breed the gold fish in my aqurium of 4 ltrs. pls tell me
Mar 16th 2010
4:17 PM
plzz u can tell me how will u knw female is pregnant gold fish reply soon as possible….
Mar 16th 2010
6:35 PM
i have a 5 gallion tank. i have fancy tall golde fish i have 3 of them and i dont know if i have a male. HELP
Apr 3rd 2010
12:23 AM
i keep my fish in a fishtank
Apr 11th 2010
3:53 AM
i whant to breed my goldfish what can i use?
Apr 18th 2010
6:25 AM
Can people stop asking stupid questions like tell me plz how to breed goldfish in 4ltrs.
1. read other comments!
2. Have some common SENSE!!!
Regards.
May 12th 2010
5:55 AM
My fancy goldfish have been sucsessfully breeding in my aquarium and it was totally unexpected. the fry are now two weeks old and i have 14 out of 100 eggs laid. The second lot of eggs are just under a week old and i have about 30 maybe more, but bare in mind not all of them survive.
my tank is about 160 litres possibly more and they have sucsessfully bred, they usually breed early in the morning and you need to have 2 males for every female to sucsessfully breed your goldfish. I have 7 goldfish 3 of which are female. so 2 males to every female is a rough guide. Increase the water temperature to about 24 degrees and feed them a mixture of food such as flakes and frozen blood worm or brine shrimp. when the eggs are laid remove immediately into containers or a nursery tank using the water from your goldfish tank. feed the eggs one drop of liquifry and keep them at 24 degrees in order for them to hatch in 3-4 days. any eggs you notice with a furry white appearence are swarmed with fungus remove immediately if you can see none or a few eggs dont panic as i did in a few days when the fry have hatched you will have loads.
The fry carry a feeding sack for the first 24hours to 48hours but put 1 drop of liquifry in so they can absorb it, they will usually be stuck to the side when they become free swimming they need to be fed liquifry and do this 3 to 4 times daily, 2-4 drops a time depending on the amount of fry. at first they are see through with 2 black dots in a week or so they will be alot larger and less see through and they will be free swimming just like adult fish. it might be a good idea to get a light filteration system but make sure it doesnt suck the fry up put a thin tight over it if you are worried. also a light aeriation system is good to oxygenate the water, however if this isnt possible just do a partial water change daily using tapsafe to make the water safe to use. Keep the water 3-6inches deep as anything above this can crush the eggs or the young fry. When the fry are about half a centimeter you can start feeding them powderd fish food and gradually increase this as they grow keeping them separate from adults until the fry are large enough not to be eaten.
Bare in mind out of hundreds and thousands you may only get one or no survivers if you get 10 or more you have done excellently!
Oh and spawning mops are a good idea (:
Good luck
May 12th 2010
6:01 AM
Oh and fish need to be mature males will develop white pimples on their gills this is when they are sexually mature usually about 1yr but in there prime at 3yrs.
Females will become plumper and you may notice around the anus well just above becomes white and soft looking this means they are ready to spawn, females again need to be atleast 1yr old but at 3yrs old they are in there prime.
When spawning usually early in the morning the males will become vigerously chasing the female this is to help her release eggs pushing her into weed eventually she will release eggs remove theese! they are immediately fertilised.
if your fish are failing to spawn and you have real weed, spawning mops and have changed diet and raised the temparature. Try removing the female over night and re introducing her the next morning it should make the males more interested in her. while the males are chasing her leave them to it but watch out for eggs dont remove her.
Jul 28th 2010
4:24 AM
how do i recognise where ther they r male or female