Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Creating the right conditions for growing
• Part 2 of 3: Determining the sex of your goldfish and isolating them
• Part 3 of 3: Raising your goldfish
• Warnings

Breeding goldfish is not as easy as it sounds. You need to create the right environment for your goldfish, find fertile males, promote reproduction, and ensure proper incubation and egg laying. They are essential steps in growing. Breeding fish can be time consuming and costly, so it is difficult to make a profit. However, if you do it right, you can surprise yourself. As with many things, the crux lies in the attention to detail and patience.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Creating the right conditions for growing

1. Plan well ahead. It takes a long time to create the right conditions for mating. Buy your fish about a year in advance. July and August are the best months to buy the fish as goldfish usually mate in the spring. Your goldfish should be well accustomed to their habitat and no more stress before mating season starts, so try to plan well in advance!
   • The first thing to do (assuming you already have at least a 15 gallon tank) is to clean the new fish. You do this by adding 80 eye drops of formaldehyde, 6 drops of copper sulphate and a small amount of terramycin. This cleans the goldfish and your aquarium and keeps both healthy.
2. Create the right environment in the aquarium. The aquarium you are going to use for breeding should have a capacity of at least 75 liters. In addition, you must add the right content to create a natural goldfish habitat. Normally these are natural or artificial bushy plants or fertile, sprawling fibers.
   • When females lay their eggs, they usually attach them to a solid object. If you allow your fish to reproduce naturally, it is therefore good to create a green living environment. If you are going to grow artificially, no plants are needed, but they do improve the habitat of the fish (and also act as a good water filter) when they do not reproduce.
   • Consider investing in spawning brushes. These are made of floating nylon thread and females like to lay their eggs in them. You don't need spawning brushes if you have enough plants or other fibrous material in your tank, but it does provide an easy, efficient way to keep your goldfish eggs safe, as adult goldfish tend to eat unsecured eggs.
3. Start improving your goldfish's diet. Start feeding non-pellet foods, such as brine shrimp or live black worms, but don't do it abruptly. Such food simulates the natural food in the spring, the period when goldfish like to mate. Some general tips for feeding your goldfish:
   • Only feed your goldfish small amounts of food, but do so often. Feed them three times a day and be careful not to overfeed them. Many goldfish owners make the mistake of overfeeding; the remains are not eaten, sink to the bottom of the aquarium and then decompose, contaminating the water.
   • Regardless of the food, it is important that you make it small enough to fit your goldfish's mouth.
4. Simulate spring by lowering the temperature of the water and then gradually warming it up again. Goldfish mate in the spring, so it is good to mimic the warming of the water. To do this, first lower the temperature to between 10 ° C and 12 ° C. Then, when you are ready for mating, increase the temperature by 2 ° C per day until the temperature is between 20 ° C and 23 ° C.
5. Make sure to change some of the water every day. A partial water change is important for the well-being of your fish and especially for stimulating the breeding conditions. Change a maximum of 20% water from the aquarium daily, do not exceed this amount.
   • Don't forget to add water conditioner to the fresh water. Conditioners neutralize chemicals that are harmful to your fish. They also remove chlorine and counteract chloramines.

Part 2 of 3: Determining the sex of your goldfish and isolating them

1. Know what a female goldfish typically looks like. Determining the sex of your goldfish is perhaps the most important task in breeding; if you put a bunch of males together because you don't know the difference, of course you won't get offspring. Females typically look like this:
   • Look for a protruding opening. Between the anus and the anal fin there is a small opening through which goldfish, depending on the sex, secrete eggs or sperm. This opening is rounded and convex in females, a bit like a protruding navel.
   • Feel the belly. The abdomen, between the pelvic fins and the anal fin, is very soft and movable in females.
   • View the pectoral fins. The pectoral fins of females are round and short.
   • In general, female goldfish are a bit smaller and rounder than male fish, they are usually longer and more pointed. However, this is a less reliable method of determining gender.
2. Know what a male goldfish typically looks like. Males are generally slightly larger than the females. They can also be distinguished by the following properties:
   • The presence of small white asterisks, or tubercles. Tubercles are small bumps that appear on the fins, head, and gills of males when they are ready to mate.
   • A hollow opening at the anus, in contrast to the bulge of the female.
   • Feel the belly. The male's abdomen is much stiffer and harder than that of the female.
   • View the pectoral fins. The pectoral fins of males are more pointed and longer compared to the short, rounded pectoral fins of females.
3. Observe goldfish behavior to determine if they are males or females. During the spawning season, males will chase the females. Not very convincing at first, but enthusiasm grows with time. Put a fish that you know is a female in the tank and observe the reaction of other fish: males will show interest, females will not change their behavior!
4. Consider isolating males and females for several weeks before spawning. Many breeders isolate males and females for a few weeks before spawning to encourage greater enthusiasm for spawning. Just like in humans, the absence of a partner in fish makes the heart beat faster.

Part 3 of 3: Raising your goldfish

1. Choose the best fish. Young, robust goldfish are ideal for their high fertility and libido. Look for females with a large rear and breast area and look for a large partner (10 to 15 cm) who can swim quickly. Males with many small tubercles behind their heads and on their gills are often the ideal partner.
   • For an ideal mix of spawners, try to isolate the 3 best males and 2 best females.
2. Introduce the 5 goldfish to each other in the same tank and see if they spawn on their own. You will notice that the male takes on a lighter shade on the abdomen and swims around quickly, usually in pursuit of the female. The female will drop her eggs over a plant and the male will fertilize them by spreading his sperm over it. If you miss this moment, but do see eggs in your tank, the eggs are most likely just fertilized.
3. If natural spawning does not work, you can switch to artificial insemination. Put one male and one female together in a shallow aquarium. Hold the male gently and gently rub his anal opening, this will release the sperm. Stir the sperm into the water and then rub the female's anal opening, causing her to eject her eggs. Stir the water again to combine the eggs and sperm.
   • Be very careful with artificial insemination. Goldfish are very sensitive, so only use very light pressure when emptying their anal openings.
   • You don't have to keep the goldfish underwater in this process. Goldfish, like other fish, can breathe normally outside of water, only less well. If you don't take them out of the water for more than 30 seconds at a time, no problems will arise.
4. Isolate the eggs. Unfortunately, captive goldfish tend to eat their eggs. It is therefore necessary to almost immediately separate the eggs from their parents in order for all the eggs to hatch. Fertilized eggs will hatch after 4 to 7 days, depending on the temperature of the water.
   • When the eggs hatch, you can feed the small fish the same food as their parents. Just make sure to cut the food into even smaller pieces than the adult fish's food, so their little mouths and throats can take in the food.
   • Try to keep the eggs in the same water that they were fertilized in. Transplantation of the eggs is at your own risk.
5. Be patient with your fish as they grow up. You will soon have a whole school of goldfish swimming in your tank. Make sure the tank is large enough to accommodate all the young fish fry.

Warnings

• Do not handle goldfish unless necessary. Handling it can cause them stress and damage their scales.